Radio observations from ground and space trace a number of key phenomena for space weather, including the escape of energetic particles from the solar corona, shock waves and signatures of coronal mass ejections. The fact that a large part of the radio spectrum can be observed from ground makes this technique les vulnerable to space weather hazards than space-borne observations. In this contribution I will illustrate the potential of radio observations for short-term space weather forecasting and describe present efforts within two projects (ANR and Horizon 2020) to improve our understanding of the processes and of the techniques to use them in future forecasting tools.