We study magnetic materials and heterostructures which can be the building blocks of a new generation of data storage devices exploiting topological protection against noise. We detect magnetic skyrmions, skyrmion bubbles, domains and domain walls and manipulate them by external fields and current pulses. We study theoretically the spin state in the bulk and at the interfaces of heterostructures by means of our program package developed for ab initio spin dynamics modelling at the atomic scale. The excitations, the thermal stability and non-equilibrium dynamics of the topological spin patterns will be studied both by time-resolved measurements and numerical simulations. We aim to identify systems which allow for fast information processing at a low level of dissipation.