"Structural metallic materials for applications in turbine blades are attractive not only from industrial, but also from environmental and socio-economical standpoints. The Ni-based superalloys have been the state of the art materials for this application. Nevertheless, ever increasing working temperatures of the components need further alloy development. Therefore, intermetallic compounds have been considered as promising candidates to substitute some of the Ni-based superalloys.The major objective of the project is to design, develop, understand and model the new class of NiAl-based in situ composites with tunable properties for high temperature services. A novel synergetic approach combining state-of-the-art computational thermodynamics and state-of-the-art alloy design, processing and characterization, will be presented. On one hand, advanced computational thermodynamic tools will be used to create and optimize thermodynamic and mobility databases, which will be subsequently used for constitutional and phase equilibrium calculations. In parallel, diffusion and phase field models will be developed to model the solidification process. On the other hand, a combination of sophisticated alloy design and processing will be employed to understand the solidification behavior and control the microstructure. Based on this knowledge the microstructure-property relationship will be established and alloys with superior properties will be tailored.Besides the contemporary concepts of alloy design and processing, some novel aspects will be introduced as well. For example, the use of pseudo-binary eutectic trough concept to systematically change the volume fraction of the reinforcement will be presented for the first time to the scientific community. This will contribute to development of other classes non-structural eutectic materials as well. Also, methodical microstructure control by using gradient ingot method also present innovative features in modern alloy development."