RPMI Festival 2026: 77 Abstracts, 18 spotlight talks, 57 posters, and 6 hands-on sessions
On 9 June 2026, under the theme “Shaping the Force: An Alliance in Imaging,” the RPMI Festival once again provided a forum for experts from across disciplines to share the latest advances in medical imaging, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and shape the future of imaging research.
Held at the Van-Swieten Saal of the Medical University of Vienna, the RPMI featured 18 spotlight talks, 57 posters, 6 hands-on sessions, project presentations, a panel discussion on large language models in medical imaging, and a keynote lecture by Professor Brendan Kennedy (The University of Western Australia).
Behind the programme stood a substantial community effort. The submitted abstracts were evaluated by 36 reviewers, resulting in more than 225 individual reviews.
The submissions came from all six RPMI nodes: Applied Medical Imaging, Image Computing and Analysis, Microscopy and Advanced Optical Imaging, Preclinical Imaging, Image-Guided Therapy and Theranostics, and Imaging Probe Development.
The festival motto this year was Shaping the Force: An Alliance in Imaging.
One discussion during the festival captured this year’s theme particularly well. A researcher presented a newly developed imaging tool and was asked what biological question it could solve. The answer was that the technology alone was not enough. Generating data is only the first step. Understanding what the data means requires the people developing the technology, the people studying the biology, and the people facing the clinical problem to work together.
In many ways, this reflects how imaging research is evolving. New technologies continue to expand what can be measured and visualized, but their real value emerges when they are combined with biological insight, clinical expertise, and data analysis.
This is also what makes RPMI special within the Medical University of Vienna. Imaging is no longer confined to a single discipline, department, or application. It has become a common meeting point for researchers working on very different problems but facing many of the same challenges.
The festival itself is only one day each year. The discussions, collaborations, and projects that emerge from it continue long afterwards.
We look forward to welcoming new collaborators from across the Medical University of Vienna and beyond who share the belief that the most interesting questions are often solved at the boundaries between disciplines.
The RPMI would like to thank all speakers, abstract authors, reviewers, sponsors, participants, and the organizing team for contributing to the success of RPMI Festival 2026.
RPMI Festival 2026 Committee
Richard Haindl (Coordinator)
Lena Hirtler
Roxane Licandro
Ivo Rausch
Kareem Elsayad
Gerd Heilemann
Stefan H. Geyer
Event Management
Ute Weber-Woisetschläger
Sponsors
Silver Sponsor
Siemens Healthineers
Bronze Sponsors
Mediso
Bayer
SAVE THE DATE - 9th RPMI Festival
10 June 2027
Van Swieten Saal, Van-Swieten-Gasse 1a, 1090 Vienna