  Maser emission plays an important role as a tool in star formation studies.
It is widely used for deriving kinematics, as well as the physical conditions
of different structures, hidden in the dense environment very close to the
young stars, for example associated with the onset of jets and outflows. We
will summarize the recent observational and theoretical progress on this topic
since the last maser symposium: the IAU Symposium 242 in Alice Springs.
