The Joint DEMOCRITOS-ICTP School on Quantum Monte Carlo Methods, scheduled to begin 12 January, will mark the Centre's opening research activity for 2004. More than 40 schools, colleges, workshops and conferences have been scheduled for next year. A preliminary listing of scientific activities has been posted on the Centre's homepage at www.ictp.it (under Scientific Calendar 2004). Topics range from optics to earthquakes; ecological economics to scientific e-learning; climate variability to nanotechnology; cosmology to medical physics; and complexity to neurophysics. Centre activities taking place outside Trieste include the Asian/Pacific Regional School on Electronic Structure Methods and Their Applications, scheduled to be held in China, and the Microprocessor Laboratory Second Central American Regional Course on Advanced VLSI Design Techniques, scheduled to take place in Mexico. In addition, plans are now underway for a series of scientific events marking the Centre's 40th anniversary.