"Today ceramic anode-supported SOFC cells represent the state-of-the-art with respect to high-temperature fuel cells. However the use of ceramic SOFC cells inherently impose limits in terms of reliability, cost and ability to handle transients. The objective of the METSOFC project is to develop the next generation of metal based SOFC stack technology. Within the project metal supported SOFC cells will be developed and tested and new metallic stack materials will be developed and tested as well, including new robust insulating seals between layers. Finally, the developed stacks will be tested up to the 1 kWe level. The METSOFC project consists of six work packages: WP1 Product and test definition WP2 Materials and components WP3 Cells WP4 Stacks WP5 Testing WP6 Dissemination and exploitation of project results The METSOFC consortium comprises a strong vertically integrated team, representing all core competences necessary to carry out the development. Between them, the partners have the sufficient experience and position to ensure that the technology developed will be market oriented and industrially relevant. The members of the METSOFC consortium have also been selected to provide the LEANEST and most efficient organisation possible. All the members have prior collaboration experience in other bilateral and multilateral partnerships. Metal based SOFC stack technology will improve functionality, reliability and reproducibility and reduce manufacturing cost of SOFC stacks, in particular for APU applications which require fast start up and thermal cycling, carbon containing fuel gas, high current density, chock vibration resistance, fast transients in electrical loads, and red-ox cycling. Current state-of-the-art anode-supported cells rely upon nickel/zirconia materials that will not be able to meet neither the technical requirements, nor the future allowable total cost for SOFC systems (such as the approximately 350 EUR per kilowatt)."