The events of the past year have brought into sharp focus the importance of research into acute and emergency care towards improving patient outcomes. With this in mind we present short perspectives from experts in different acute fields as to what research area could make a big difference to healthcare within the next 5-10 years. A consistent theme is improved patient stratification and characterisation to facilitate precision medicine becoming a reality (Figure 1). Breakthroughs in diagnostics, stratification, data analytics and treatments have the potential to lead to many exciting innovations over the next few years which in turn will translate into better patient care.