Scientific drivers for ESO future VLT/VLTI instrumentation

the long version

This is the start of a long process to ultimately operate new advanced capabilities at Paranal that can keep up with the ever-growing need for larger and more complex astrophysical data sets. A modern instrument represents a very significant investment in cash, human resources and time. Such a meeting gives us a precious yardstick to evaluate the competitiveness of first-generation instruments and associated current and forthcoming proposals for first-generation upgrades. This is also crucial to orient the large research and development effort that will provide the very foundation on which second-generation VLT instrumentation can be built. Finally, it represents a significant step towards defining the hopes and goals for the future Extremely Large Telescope to come. The first outcome of this meeting, already in progress, is outlined in the epilogue.