The need for materials with predetermined ligand-selectivities for use in sensing and separation technologies, e.g. membranes and chromatography, has driven the development of molecularly imprinted polymer science and technology. Over recent years, the need to develop robust predictive tools capable of handling the complexity of molecular imprinting systems has become apparent The current status of the use of in silica techniques in molecular imprinting is here presented, and we highlight areas where new developments are contributing to improvements in the rational design of molecularly imprinted polymers.