In September 1977 a 'Regional Science Symposium' was held at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Organized because of the recent establishment at the Faculty of Economics of a group that is engaged in teaching and research in the field of regional science, the aim of the symposium was to make university members more familiar with regional science and to introduce the newly­ created group to the national and international scene. Two separate topics were selected, of potential interest to both researchers and policy-makers. The first, spatial inequalities and regional development, was chosen because of its central place in regional science. Authors from several disciplines were asked to approach this theme from a general, policy­ orientated point of view. This ensured the enlightenment of the various dimensions of spatial inequality and its implications for regional policy. The results have been collected in the volume Spatial Inequalities and Regional Development. The second theme focused on spatial statistical analysis. This branch of statistics is a relatively new one which receives growing attention among researchers in the field of applied regional science. The meeting on this topic concentrated on new results of research on the use of appropriate statistical and econometric methods for analyzing spatial data. The papers concerned have been collected into another volume, Explora­ tory and Explanatory Statistical Analysis of Spatial Data.