In September 2017, the ECB held its second Annual Research Conference. This column surveys the contributions to the conference, which brought together academics and central bankers working at the cutting edge of economics, covering a wide range of research relevant for the ECB. ECB Vice-President Vítor Constâncio highlighted the value that the ECB attaches to research, which “contributes to shaping the intellectual framework that we use to understand economic developments and to take policy decisions”. Other speakers included Olivier Blanchard, Peter Diamond, Hyun Song Shin, and Jeremy Stein.