Purpose of the Job

The FENDER programme aims to bring game-changing ideas and exploit advances in complimentary areas of science to trigger a UK-led renaissance in electromagnetic NDE, boosting the UK’s reputation, energising a world-leading research community and achieving downstream commercial impact via a broad network of industrial partners. The overarching ambition is to create a world-leading, agile, strongly connected research programme that addresses the foundation science topics essential for innovation to produce the next generation of electromagnetic (EM) non-destructive evaluation tools and techniques. A further aspiration is to pave the way in deploying these advances with our industry partners across the engineering sector.

The Programme is led by the University of Manchester and involves four other Universities (Bristol, Warwick, Newcastle and Strathclyde). The initiative is supported by approximately 25 industrial partners which are some of the major NDE users.

The vision for FENDER is to catapult advanced EM sensing technologies to the forefront of industrial monitoring and manufacturing processes, maximising quality assurance and control capabilities, and firmly establishing these powerful enabling technologies at the core of future industrial processes. Harnessing the combined knowledge and capabilities of the academic and industrial partners’ expertise in this field, we will create a unique platform for accelerating physics-led EM sensing technologies into impact in NDE applications. FENDER will establish the UK as a global powerhouse for EM sensing technologies, building the foundation for innovative collaborative research, commercial enterprise and economic impact, providing a launchpad for industry and innovators to facilitate Industry 4.0 and beyond.