To mark World Kidney Day 2016, Nature Reviews Nephrology invited six leading researchers to highlight the key advances and challenges within their specialist field of paediatric nephrology. Here, advances and remaining challenges in the fields of prenatal patterning, acute kidney injury, renal transplantation, genetics, cardiovascular health, and growth and nutrition, are all discussed within the context of paediatric and neonatal patients with kidney disease. Our global panel of researchers describe areas in which further studies and clinical advances are needed, and suggest ways in which research in these areas should progress to optimize renal care and long-term outcomes for affected patients.