Virtual Research Environments (VREs) will increasingly change the face of research and librarians have a crucial role to play in their development and use. In the future, VREs should be as fundamentally integrated into the university library information space as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are now. If VREs are to achieve their potential in supporting researchers, librarians need to ensure that they are involved at this early stage of their evolution so that they can influence their development.