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Ursa Opara Krasovec, PhD, is a young scientist working in the Ljubljana Laboratory for Electrical Engineering. In her early thirties, she has already had experience working abroad. "It's not hard to get out of Slovenia," she said "but not many foreigners come to Slovenia to do research." Despite some difficulties, Slovenian scientists generally feel contented with their lot and 'brain drain' from this country where "life is good" has never been a major problem. "I was employed through a Marie Curie fellowship at an institute for solar energy research in Freiburg, Germany for a year, but now I am back living in Slovenia. I don't have any desire to go abroad for another period at the moment since I have two children at school and we feel happy here in Slovenia," Ursa said. But being responsible for overseeing the Marie Curie programme, she is eager to inform her younger colleagues about the international possibilities open to them that can both enrich their personal lives and contribute to Slovenia's scientific development. A number of positive developments in recent years have helped maintain and strengthen Slovenia's scientific and technological potential. In 1985, an ambitious programme to attract young researchers was launched that has not only made it possible to train about 250 new researchers every year since but has been so successful that the programme has just been opened to foreign researchers. The government's pro-active strategy has succeeded in stemming the brain drain - and the republic now has more than 55 researchers per 10,000 members of its workforce. As of July, Ursa will have a much easier task keeping her colleagues informed. The implementation of two European Commission initiatives under the European Research Area programme (ERA) - part of which is the establishment of a Slovenian Researchers' Mobility Centre and the Slovenian Researchers' Mobility Portal, run by CMEPIUS (Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Mobility and Educational and Training Programmes) are giant steps forward in the field of research in Slovenia. The new ERA mobility portal (www.eracareers.si) and the centre will both play important roles in making Slovenia a knowledge society.