  Elegant experiments are being carried out, or are in preparation, to improve
the precision with which the solar and atmospheric neutrino-oscillation
parameters are known, and to attempt to make a first measurement of the small
mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. The compelling case for the development of an
accelerator-based neutrino source to serve the programme of precision
measurements of neutrino oscillations and sensitive searches for leptonic-CP
violation that is required to follow these experiments is briefly reviewed. The
Neutrino Factory, an intense high-energy neutrino source based on a stored muon
beam, is widely believed to yield a precision and sensitivity superior to other
proposed second-generation facilities. The alternatives are identified and the
case for a critical comparison of the performance of the various options is
presented. Highlights of the exciting international R&D programmes which are
designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the required techniques are then
reviewed. The steps that the international community is taking to produce, by
the end of the decade, a full conceptual design for the facility are described.
The ambition of the Neutrino Factory community is to demonstrate the
feasibility of a cost-effective design such that, should forthcoming
measurements show that it is required, the facility could be brought into
operation in the second half of the next decade.
