The European SMEs represent 99% of all enterprises in Europe and they contribute more than two thirds of European GDP and provide 75 million jobs in the private sector. They are therefore key to the implementation of the renewed Lisbon strategy for economic growth and employment. The EU Member States have earmarked a total of over 1.3 billion for funding SME research support over the duration of European Commission Framework Programme 7 (2007 - 2013). There are over 15,000 NDT SMEs in Europe covering various industry sectors such as Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Power Generation, Aerospace, Road transports, etc. This paper looks into how these NDT SMEs tap into the FP7 funding in order to further enhance their inspection technologies so that they can become more competitive in current economic climate. The Research for the benefit of SMEs programme has enabled these NDT SMEs to: (1) Outsource research work, (2) Increase their research efforts/capabilities, (3) Extend their networks, (4) Better exploit research results, (5) Acquire technological know-how by bridging the gap between research and innovation and (6) Develop new NDT systems and software. Through the Research for SME funding programme, TWI has assisted many SMEs in developing technologies such as phased array inspection of plastic pipes, condition monitoring of storage tank floors, a structural health monitoring system for ship's hulls, a digital radiography system for the volumetric examination of large scale safety critical pressure components, phased array ultrasonic inspection for volumetric examination of alumino-thermic rail welds, structural health monitoring of wind turbines, and many more, which will be described in the presentation.
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