Thirty per cent of all women and ten per cent of all men experience migraine. This crippling illness does not kill, but its high morbidity poses a massive economic problem and gives rise to considerable suffering. Its main manifestation, headache, is subjective, and there are no animal models. This makes traditional research approaches difficult, and has led to a variety of research strategies. In this study, leaders in migraine research present the numerous advances that have been made over the past two decades in our understanding of this disorder, and discuss in depth the position of migraine research today and the directions it will take in the future.