Innovation, the foundation of economic development  today, depends on rapid scientific  advances. Science for its part has become increasingly based on open, cross-border  collaboration between researchers the whole world over. In addition, modern science is a  heavy user of high-capacity computing to model complex systems and to process  experimental results.   The emergence of new research methods that exploit advanced computational resources, data  collections and scientific instruments, in other words e-Science, is poised to revolutionise the  future scientific discovery process as the "Scientific Renaissance" did in setting the base of  modern science. It is crucial for Europe to embrace the underlying paradigm shift in order to  keep its competitive position and to respond to societal expectations.