Construction of the Virtual Observatory (VO) is a great concern to the astronomical community in the 21st century. We present an outline of the concept and necessity of the va and the current status of various VO projects including the 15 national ones and the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). We summarize the possible science cases that could be solved by using the VO data/tools, real science cases which are the results of using current VO tools, and our own work of using AstroGrid, the United Kingdom national VO, for a research on star formation history of galaxies.

• ROBERT G. MANN(Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
• ALAN F. HEAVENS(Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
• SANGMO TONY SOHN(Korean Virtual Observatory, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute)
• BENJAMIN PANTER(Max Planck Institute fur Astrophysik, Garching, Germany)
• JOHN D. TAYLOR(Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
• SANG CHUL KIM(Korean Virtual Observatory, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute/Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)