Recent years have seen significant new results on the evolution of Proterozoic terranes, and many of these resulted from new techniques, new concepts, and increasing multi‐disciplinary research. In 1981, Working Group (WG) 3 of the International Lithosphere Program (ILP) was established. Its principal tasks were clarification of the origin and evolution of the Proterozoic rocks and of the magmatic, metamorphic, deformational processes involved in their evolution; elucidation of the basic patterns of the structure and composition of the Proterozoic lithosphere and their implicatin for the geochemical differentiation of mantle and crust and the growth of continents; and characterization of Proterozoic tectonic regimes and evaluation of the role of plate tectonics in Proterozoic orogenesis and lithospheric evolution.