Plants stand at the crossroads of many important questions in biology and in the future development of the global societies. Research within photosynthesis, cell wall biology and bio-active compounds may offer solutions to many of the challenges the world community is facing with respect to global food security, food quality, plant biomass as the future sustainable energy resource and the development of plants and microorganisms as environmentally benign “green factories˝. Approaches within synthetic biology will further facilitate the development of “green factories” providing a renewable supply of organic building blocks replacing those currently obtained from the petrochemical industry. Plants in which cell wall polymers are optimized for bioenergy production and identification of pathways for synthesis of bio-active compounds with desirable therapeutic or health promoting properties in plants or microorganisms are key targets of our research to be discussed. Innovation is the use of possibilities arising from uncertainties and the time is right for innovation within this area.