Monomers bearing an activated ester group can be polymerized under various controlled polymerization techniques, such as ATRP, NMP, RAFT polymerization, or ROMP. Combining the functionalization of polymers via polymeric activated esters with these controlled polymerization techniques generate possibilities to realize highly functionalized polymer architectures. Within this highlight two different research areas of activated esters in polymer science will be discussed: (i) the preparation of defined reactive polymer architectures by controlled polymerization techniques and (ii) the preparation of defined reactive thin films. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.