"Mass production is shifted towards the countries with lower factor cost. European industry must search for a chance in customized and hi-tech products, trying to take advantage of its supremacy regarding new technologies development. Aerospace industry, automotive industry, medical implants, hi-end equipments industry, consumer products, protection and safety are the target sectors –which include more than a million of European enterprises in real need of customized product. Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) -also known as Free Form Fabrication and formerly Rapid Manufacturing-, is a novel fabrication method of parts directly from the electronic model by layer manufacturing, using active principles such as laser and Electron beams. Currently, ALM is the first and the best option for short series of customized products. However, layered manufacturing is not without challenges. Part properties, dimensional accuracy and surface quality depend strongly on process planning, and sometimes prevent ALM parts to be considered as fully functional. The objective of KARMA is to respond to above mentioned challenges with a knowledge-based engineering system (KBE) that can estimate functional properties of ALM parts automatically and in short time. The KBE system would define the optimal production parameters automatically and execute a virtual test of the fabricated part. The KBE system will include a database with characterized material and part properties for all major ALM technologies. The development of such a KBE system is a difficult and demanding task, which will involve both ALM users and companies from the final customer sectors. A combination of mass production metal IAGs (FEMEVAL) and ALM IAGs (ASERM, AFPR and RAPIMAN) set up the proposal as a cohesion factor between material providers, technology providers, part fabricants and end-users to promote ALM knowledge among all of them."