Submillimetre (submm) astronomy is the prime technique to unveil the birth and early evolution of a broad range of astrophysical objects. It is a relatively new branch of observational astrophysics which focuses on studies of the cold Universe, i.e., objects radiating a significant – if not dominant – fraction of their energy at wavelengths ranging from ∼ 100 μm to ∼ 1 mm. Submm continuum observations are particularly powerful to measure the luminosities, temperatures and masses of cold dust emitting objects. Examples of such objects include star-forming clouds in our Galaxy, prestellar cores and deeply embedded protostars, protoplanetary disks around young stars, as well as nearby starburst galaxies and dust-enshrouded high-redshift galaxies in the early Universe.