Over the past three decades, intensive research activities have focused on the development of electrochemical energy storage devices, particularly exploiting the concept of flow batteries. Amongst these, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) are an attractive option, which have been studied extensively and are now being commercialized around the world. The performance of the VRFB system is governed by several critical components namely the electrolyte, the electrode, the ion-exchange membrane and the flow field design. Here, the focus is mainly on recent research activities relating to the development and modification of electrode materials and new ion-exchange membranes. The feasibility of novel flow field designs for high energy density VRFB systems and their future prospects are also discussed in detail.