Highest performance Fe-Nd-B-based permanent magnets offer only low cost-effectiveness and shortened lifetime, both induced by their rare-earth (RE) content. Thus, the necessity for novel hard magnetic phases with better available RE metals, reduced RE content or fully free of RE is immense. As the number of so far unexplored alloy systems is large, the chances that such magnet materials still exist are good. The successful search for novel hard magnetic phases demands an efficient approach of restricting and prioritizing the search field as well as deployment of efficient synthesis and analysis methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]