In September 2025, the Section Biomedical Imaging (SBMI) successfully hosted the 27th annual meeting of the DACH-ISMRM, marking a special milestone as it was the first joint conference with the Nordic Chapter of the ISMRM. Held from September 16–17 at the Kiel University, the conference brought together leading scientists, clinicians, and young researchers working in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries.
Historically and internationally matured as a german speaking conference, this meeting was held entirely in English to foster inclusive participation, especially from the Nordic partners. “The many abstract submissions have allowed us to put forward a fantastic program, covering topics from fundamental physics to clinical application, showcasing the breadth and quality of MR research in our region of this ever-changing world”, says Prof. Jan-B. Hövener, Head of SBMI and MOIN CC, and conference president. “We’re incredibly grateful to the Faculty of Medicine and our sponsors Siemens Healthineers, Skope, Merck, GE HealthCare, NVision Imaging Technologies, Pure Devices GmbH, Bruker and MR:Comp GmbH for their generous support, making this conference possible and such a success.”
The success of the conference obvious with more than 130 conference attendies and over 80 conference contributions, presented through oral sessions, poster exhibitions, and keynote lectures. Over 50 pre-conference and 30 post-conference workshop participants from different countries, underlining the community’s enthusiasm for hands-on learning and technical exchange, also reflected SBMI’s growing international ties in medical imaging research and Kiel’s ambitous role as one of the leading cities in MRI development and innovation in Germany and northern Europe.
Keynote Highlights and Scientific Program – The conference featured a diverse scientific program, including oral and poster presentations from researchers at all career stages. Topics throughout the program ranged from imaging physics and new reconstruction methods to clinical applications and translational imaging, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Each of the five different conference sessions, was opened with an plenary talk - a real highlight.
1) Flow and Diffusion
2) Metabolic and Molecular MRI
3) Low and high field MR
4) Clinical application,
5) Sequences, Reconstruction and Machine Learning
Many thanks to the plenary speaker Prof. Matthias Günther (Deputy Institute Director Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Bremen, Germany), Prof. Inga Voges (Clinic for Congenital Heart Defects and Pediatric Cardiology, UKSH Kiel) Prof. Christoffer Laustsen (Department of Clinical Medicine – The MR Research Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark), Prof. Jürgen Hennig (Medical Physics, Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany) and Prof. Martin Uecker (Institute of Biomedical Imaging, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria)!
Text: Dr. Ronald Seidel