M-ERA.NET will be a real tool for developing a strong European RTD community on materials science and engineering and for supporting the European economy with respect to the challenges of the 21st century.M-ERA.NET will be a highly ambitious network involving a majority of European key players in national funding of materials science and engineering.M-ERA.NET will replace a number of smaller previous ERA-NETs and cover the materials domain with an innovative and flexible umbrella concept for one single ERA-NET contract.M-ERA.NET will set up a multi-annual policy for joint programming targeted at the whole innovation cycle.Cooperation at an international level will enable the European RTD community to access world leading knowledge.It is our mission to- strengthen the status of the European RTD community and economy in materials sciences and engineering;- mobilise critical mass of national and regional funding for transnational RTD cooperation in materials science and engineering, thereby achieving a very large leverage effect of the requested FP7 funding;- set up a novel umberlla concept for cooperation to react to emerging needs and to allow coverage of future topics in related thematic areas;- establish strategic programming of joint activities, addressing societal and technological challenges in an interdisciplinary approach;- support the exploitation of created knowledge along the whole innovation chain;- enable enlarged research cooperation within the EU member states and associated states;- establish international cooperation with partners outside Europe;- exploit the novel developments in a durable, long term cooperation between funding organisations.