Just as the development of the World Wide Web has had its greatest impact outside particle physics, so it will be with the development of the Grid. E-science, of which the Grid is just a part, is already making a big impact upon many scientific disciplines, and facilitating new scientific discoveries that would be difficult to achieve in any other way. Key to this is the definition and use of metadata. The techniques of e-Science present significant opportunities for the less developed countries, including those of the Southern Mediterranean, to make an impact in areas of direct relevance, in health care, civil protection and economic development, provided that the appropriate infrastructure (particularly the internet) is in place.