The European biomedical imaging community is made up of hundreds of research institutes, academic departments and industry. Many associations exist which group together various sub-units of these professionals at both a national and European level, but there is little communication between them. Unfortunately there is no coordination of the research activities of these associations at the European level, and little information about the infrastructures, expertise and practices in different locations. This means that research is fragmented and uncoordinated and that not enough joint or common initiatives are launched.

If European research is to compete in the key area of bio-medical imaging and to help European industry to lead the way to the discovery and implementation of these new technologies, then it quickly needs to develop a European-wide base for joint research.

Therefore it was decided to establish the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research, in order to provide a structured basis to implement key objectives to ensure that European research in bio-medical imaging is implemented as a core part of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. If key research issues are addressed in the Commission's research programme and funding is brought to bear, then European research in this area can become central to new advances in biomedical imaging.

The EIBIR report 2007

The EIBIR Research Policy Paper

http://www.eibir.org/cms/website.php