There has been a dramatic increase in paediatric asthma rates over the last few decades. Despite the development of effective treatment options and innovations in patient education and trigger avoidance, the chronicity of the disease in a considerable proportion of patients poses an important socio-economic problem. There is increasing evidence that an interplay of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to a number of agents, including air pollutants, allergens and infectious agents, are operative in the inception and persistence of the clinical asthma phenotype. Therefore, future research has to be performed with large cohorts that are appropriately genotyped, and their environment will then need to be monitored in relation to all possible environmental risk factors. Given the current limited research funding possibilities in a number of European countries, it may be necessary to direct and organise such research activities on a European level.