The KMM-VIN has emerged from the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme Network of Excellence project entitled ‘Knowledge-based Multicomponent Materials for Durable and Safe Performance’, KMM-NoE (www.kmm-noe.org) devoted to the study, understanding, design and development of new advanced materials (ceramic, metallic, metal-ceramic, intermetallic, or functionally graded) with a view to enhance their functional properties and characteristics by:

• reducing their bulk density,
• improving their performance on exposure to high temperatures,
• providing them with greater toughness,
• reducing fatigue during their service life,
• increasing their resistance to wear, corrosion and oxidation,
• furnishing them with biocompatibility and thus suiting them for medical applications.