The Chromatographic Society has many times deliberated on the theme “Impact of Separation Science on Pharmaceutical R&D”, such meetings starting with an independent event in Sunderland in 1991 and being followed by frequent Society events from 1995 onwards. However, given the proximity of last year’s Triads mega-event on essentially the same topic, this 2007 event of necessity goes a little “beyond”. Beyond in the sense that keynote speakers from the three major UK multinational pharmaceutical companies will be reviewing how things have moved on with respect to the key issues identified last year (e.g. Is it still all about UPLC and/or UPLC alternatives? Are Poppe plots still flavour of the month?) and addressing new burning issues of the day (e.g. analysis of genotoxic impurities). Beyond also in the sense that the use of separation science beyond R&D (i.e. in the manufacturing environment) will also be addressed with talks on methods transfer, cleaning validation and international guidance on method validation.