At the moment European knowledge in advanced multicomponent materials is disparate and distributed.  Whilst there are areas of strength within Europe, these are very local and there is no effective mechanism to transfer this knowledge across Europe.  In order to create novel materials concepts that go beyond conventional approaches, it is necessary to examine so far less exploited combinations of different material classes, to establish interactions between microstructure and macroscopic properties, and to design multicomponent materials for obtaining desired property profiles that comprise different functionalities.  The new materials development if an integrated task that requires coordinated activities ranging from fundamental research to industrial applications.  Therefore, the KMM-NoE project has highly interdisciplinary character integrating concepts and approaches from different branches of science as materials processing, microstructure observations, testing of mechanical and functional properties, physical mechanisms of deformation and degradation, interface phenomena, multi-scale modelling, mathematical methods and information technology.

The KMM-NoE project includes several specific integrating activities:

·          Joint programme of Activities of all participants will be established with well-coordinated and synchronised research tasks.

·          Transfer of technologies and innovations combined with sharing of facilities will assist to increase the potential of respective teams.

·          Exchange of research staff will enable sufficient spreading of information and have a synergic effect in developing novel approaches.

As a result of these activities, an international organisation behaving as a single knowledge-based enterprise will be established, increasing considerably the already existing potential of network participants taken separately.  That organisation will be able to tackle in a comprehensive manner the most challenging problems arising in the area of new knowledge-based materials.  Once established, the close links between cooperating teams from different countries will be long lasting in the future, combining knowledge and techniques at a level which could not be mastered by the individual participants.

The improvement of research infrastructure of particular laboratories is important for integrated and effective execution of knowledge transfer and development.

Interdisciplinary research is the most important aspect of new approaches in materials science and constitutes a core of the joint activity within KMM-NoE.

Breakthroughs are anticipated in understanding and modelling complex mechanical and physico-chemical processes induced in the KMM by the highly demanding loading and environmental conditions.  The enhanced understanding of material phenomena gained via extensive experimental investigations within the KMM-NoE will have a direct effect on devising multicomponent materials with tailored properties.  Moreover, the development of new material models with high predictive capabilities will be crucial to designing new problem-oriented experimental techniques as well as for performing accurate large-scale numerical computations of engineering problems.