At the beginning of the third millennium, the world's annual steel production reached 900 million tons. Flat products account for the majority of the production. It is also known that around three times the amount used today would be needed if the mechanical properties of the steels produced would have stagnated on the level characteristic of the 1930s and 40s. The history of the development and production of HSLA steel in Hungary dates back to the beginning of the 1960s. For the construction of the new Erzsebet Bridge, research workers at Danube Steelworks and at Steel Industry Research Institute developed the Ti micro-alloyed steel MTA50. In the study, we will summarise the history of the development of steels of the 700MPa strength category, thereafter we will introduce the main features of the project running within the scope of the National Research and Development Programme aimed at the development of DP- and TRIP-steels, and we will finally report on the results of the first year of the three-year project.