The British Computer Society, inspired by a similar effort undertaken by CRA, has released a report identifying seven “Grand Challenges” in computing research. The report, the result of a series of workshops and discussions featuring the UK’s top computer academics, calls for the continued development of a long-term research area in each of the following areas:

In Vivo–in Silico (iViS): the virtual worm, weed and bug

Science for global ubiquitous computing

Memories for life: managing information information over a human lifetime

Scalable ubiquitous computing systems

The architecture of brain and mind

Dependable systems evolution

Journeys in non-classical computation

These challenges seem to map nicely with the five challenges identified at CRA’s first Grand Challenge workshop, held in June 2002. That conference focused on Grand Research Challenges in Information Systems (pdf) and identified the following challenges:

Systems you can count on

A teacher for every learner

911.net (ubiquitous information systems)

Augmented cognition

Conquering complexity

For more on the BCS Grand Challenges, here’s the press release marking the release of the report, as well as the BCS Grand Challenges website.
CRA’s Grand Challenges activities (in Information Systems, and in Information Security and Assurance) are linked here.