In March 2007 the IFIP Technical Committee 13 on Human-Computer Interaction organized a workshop held in Salamanca (Spain) to discuss a number of research and development challenges in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Several papers were presented and discussed, providing an overview of some fields of activity. The aim of this workshop was not, of course, to provide a complete and exhaustive review of all possible future HCI research and development. On the contrary, experts were invited to look forward in their specific knowledge area starting from their past experience and their current activity. This special issue is composed of a selection of some of the papers presented there, which have been enhanced with the results of discussions and peer-reviewed in order to provide a good insight into the results of the workshop. Let us introduce each of them.