Session 1: Building blocks and their connections for the sciences of the future
Multidisciplinarity is a keyword that appears more and more in every research proposal or call for projects. The extreme consequence of this approach is the definition of new sciences at the borders of the existing ones. Which is the natural way to accomplish this process? Which are the disciplines that are mainly involved in this process? How do they react to the current status of the research and funding strategies? Which are the characteristics that the new sciences should have?

Session 2: Creating a new community at large: industrial and academic research, policy makers, funding agencies
If we accept that multidisciplinarity is absolutely needed to enhance our scientific knowledge, we must create a critical mass of people speaking the same language and sharing the same goals and expectations worldwide. Researchers and some policy makers are starting working in this direction, but a more structured strategy and derived actions are mandatory. Who should drive this process? Which is the role of industries, academia, governing bodies? Can evaluation of project proposals in this new era still be based on the same rules as before? How can we inform non-experts of what we are doing to get support for our initiatives?

Session 3: The -omics era and new computer science today and tomorrow
Starting from genomics till proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, etc. we are collecting an enormous amount of data that could provide, in principle, new insights into biological knowledge. Computer science techniques become mandatory not only to store the new data, but mainly for the analysis and modellization of the systems in hand. The overall objective is the construction of predictive models. In this scenario we should think of the way in which we collect and use the new available data. Is this the right way to go? Are the data produced sufficiently affordable? Which are the new computer science techniques we need to cope with the new challenges of systems biology? Is there room for cross-fertilization between biology and computer science?

Session 4: New methods in health and drug discovery: the influence of computer science
Most of the expectations from systems biology are related to new medicine practices (predictive, preventive, personalized) and consequently to new ways of developing better drugs. Many approaches relate to -omics produced data and hence they need computer tools as well. Which are the main problems of the new approach and its potentials? Which are the kinds of tools needed? Can modeling and simulation play a central role in the discovery of new medicines and drugs? What can patients expect from the new era?

Session 5: Conclusions and suggestions for the next years: obstacles, challenges and potentials
Proceeding towards a goal, even an ambitious goal, is done step by step. Hence we should try to highlight in this final session the initial steps to be done in the next years to ease the processes discussed in the conference. Considering the discussions of the previous sections we should highlight here the main obstacles to create a critical mass of people for the new sciences and the application of the new frameworks mainly in the health and drug discovery sector. We should also discuss the main challenges that if correctly addressed could provide breakthroughs in the scientific discoveries. We should briefly summarize the potential impact of these breakthroughs as well.