LAMDA uses pure Welsh Mountain sheep wool. Image – Wull Technologies.

A RIGID wool fibre panel made from Welsh Mountain sheep’s wool has won The Campaign for Wool’s Innovation In Wool award for 2026.

LAMDA has been developed by British firm Wull Technologies using pure raw wool, without the use of plastic binders, synthetic carrier fibres, resins, starches, latex or any other natural or man-made binder material.

Wull Technologies’s process changes the physical form of raw wool from a loose, soft or flexible fibre into a rigid, self-supporting panel material.

The firm says LAMDA is suitable for acoustic panelling, including wall and ceiling applications. Its first commercial application, LAMDA Hush, is a range of acoustic panels and baffles for interiors. Thermal applications for internal and external walls are currently under development.

The International Wool Textile Organisation said LAMDA gives coarser British wool a route into higher-value markets: each cubic metre of material uses around 140 kg of clean wool. Wull Technologies has also been nominated by Innovate UK for the 2027 Earthshot Prize, in the Build a Waste-Free World category.

The two runners up were SilviBio’s peat-free growing media and Devon Duvets’ award-winning folding pillow.

SilviBio uses wool to create peat-free media

SilvioBio’s media uses a patent-pending production process using 100 percent UK-sourced raw materials. The process is able to transform underutilised materials, including wool, and unlock properties such as improved water retention, transplant-ability and germination rates.

Devon Duvets’ easy care folding wool pillow

Devon Duvets’ ‘Folding Pillow’ was developed to answer a practical question: could a pillow provide comfortable support at night while being easier to air and care for?

The pillow’s construction incorporates separate sections of 100pc British wool, enclosed in natural cotton and joined by flexible stitched hinges, folded into an integral pocket to form a familiar pillow shape. Unfolded, it can be aired like a duvet and washed whole on a wool cycle, without removing the filling.

Campaign for Wool chairman Ian Maclean MBE said the winners demonstrated the potential of wool when its natural properties are combined with new thinking and product development. He added that creating new markets for the fibre is important for the future of the industry and British farmers.