IEEE Smart Grid presents A Special Issue on Recent Advances in Academic R&D on Smart Grid Applications and Paradigms which features "Location, Location, Location - and Time - and Performance: Valuing Distributed Energy Resources for Distribution Systems", "The Need for System-Level Validation and Testing of Cyber-Physical Systems", "Smart Energy City Project - an Australian Perspective to a Large DER Intensive Microgrid", and "Using OPF for Smart Grids: From Concept to Reality"