At present (July 2004), the Working Party on Mixing of the EFCE (established in 1978) consists of 30 delegates (members and standing guests) from European states who have contributed to this review and eight overseas delegates. The delegates of this Working Party are principally holders of academic positions, and consequently this overview is essentially devoted to research. It should be noted that, due to the small number of industrial delegates involved, information on the mixing trends from both a manufacturer's point of view and that of an industrial user (mainly from research centres) is rare. Every three years, the European Conference on Mixing is organized where academics and industrial partners involved in mixing research and development are accustomed to meet and exchange information and expertise, as well as to discuss open problems. The next conference, which will be held in Italy in 2006 (probably in June), will be the twelfth of the conference series. In Europe, at least 30 academic research laboratories are involved in the field of mixing, which indicates that mixing is a major topic amongst the various scientific areas of chemical engineering in Europe.