JAMES aims to develop a socially intelligent humanoid robot combining efficient task-based behaviour with the ability to understand and respond in a socially appropriate manner to a wide range of multimodal communicative signals in the context of realistic, open-ended, multi-party interactions. Research in JAMES, focuses on five core objectives: (1) analysing natural human communicative signals, (2) building a model of social interaction, (3) extending the model to manage learning and uncertainty, (4) implementing the model on a physical robot platform, and (5) evaluating the implemented system.