The objective of the programme is to unravel the physical complexity of the initiation and development of damage and failure in complex and dynamically changing microstructures in metals. Existing physical models on the initiation and propagation of damage in metallic materials are limited in terms of the specific microstructural features and physics accounted for. The physics of damage involves interacting processes and mechanisms at the nano-, micro- and macro-scale, i.e. from structural defects on the nano-scale (dislocations, grain boundaries, interphase boundaries) through damage development within the grain structure at a micro-scale to macroscopic failure.