The international colloquium "Open Issues in Local Star Formation and Early Stellar Evolution" was focused on: the physics of young stellar objects, which are observed with increasing angular resolution by the new generation of telescopes; and the processes that triggered large scale star formation in the solar neighbourhood. The scientific presentations were not limited to these two main topics as many new and interesting results related to star formation have been obtained. The participants presented new findings in the fields of stellar groups and associations; young stellar objects; disks; outflows and jets; the ISM conditions for star formation; and early stages of star formation. The discussions on "open issues", representing problems and unanswered questions, should make this book particularly useful for researchers and PhD students.