In an editorial in EMBO Reports this month, The pipeline (EMBO R. 9, 1; 2008), Frank Gannon writes that the number of scientists, technicians and engineers that the European Union needs to keep up its current rate of growth is often estimated to be 700,000 by the year 2010. He writes: “the European economies face a huge deficit of the trained people needed to sustain modern knowledge-based economies”. He goes on to discuss some of the reasons for this deficit, concluding that “We need to support and encourage young students and help teachers to communicate science in an exciting and inspiring manner, even as early as primary school. In fact, the scientific community has a lot to do and it needs to start soon if we are to avoid the deficit of skilled scientists and engineers predicted for the coming decade.”