Euro-BioImaging Nodes participate in the IHI Brokerage Event

Earlier this week, four Euro-BioImaging Nodes accompanied by Claudia Pfander, Euro-BioImaging’s Strategic Business Developer, participated in a 2-day IHI Brokerage event in Brussels, designed to facilitate networking and the formation of consortia for IHI's 2025 Open Call 9. It’s the ultimate networking event, bringing together players from research institutes, industry and small and medium enterprises. The highlight of the event is a series of “pitching sessions” where people who have a project proposal pitch their idea to potential partners in order to create a consortium and turn their idea into a reality. 

This is the second time Euro-BioImaging participated, after Med-Hub Director Linda Chaabane presented Euro-BioImaging’s capabilities at a similar event two years ago, which resulted in many new industry interactions and eventually the funding of our first IHI project ILLUMINATE under the coordination of Dennis Klomp of the Dutch High Field Imaging Node.

The feedback on the pitches from our Nodes was really positive, highlighting the scientific excellence of our facilities and the impactful role they can play in Health research.

• Claudia Pfander, Strategic Business Developer at Euro-BioImaging

This year, Baubak Bajoghli and Marco Andreana of Austrian BioImaging/CMI Node, Mario Aznar (MATICAL) representing EUCAIM and the Valencia Population Imaging Node, Stefaan Vandenberghe of the Flanders BioImaging Node and Theodora Stewart from King‘s College London (UK Node) all participated in the pitching session, with project ideas as diverse as revolutionising digital pathology, AI-supported immunotherapy monitoring, walk-through PET and new paradigms in biomarker discovery through metallomics - all with the aim of improving diagnosis, therapy and care in patients.

“This is not only a good opportunity to network and find new potential collaborations partners, but also to gain insights into industrial R&D and current focus of activities”, Claudia explained. “The feedback on the pitches from our Nodes was really positive, highlighting the scientific excellence of our facilities and the impactful role they can play in Health research.” But Nodes need to be aware of these opportunities and understand how to navigate these types of events, from the snappy 5 min pitch to researching possible collaborators before attending the event.

Theodora Stewart, Associate Director Innovation & Business Development at King’s College, shared her experience: "I first learned about the IHI Call 9 and the brokerage event through our collaboration as the UK Node in Euro-BioImaging. From the outset, I saw immense potential in showcasing King's advanced research facilities and pitching an innovative project to a diverse audience, including key industry players. Thanks to this event, we’ve started building meaningful industry relationships that I’m confident will extend well beyond the scope of IHI. None of this would have been possible without the invaluable support from Euro-BioImaging."

“Euro-BioImaging drew our attention to the IHI event and provided highly professional support both before and during the event, helping us make valuable connections,” reinforced Baubak Bajoghli, Director of Austrian BioImaging. 

Additional Euro-BioImaging Nodes that could not attend the event, but expressed an interest in joining an IHI consortium with tasks and services were represented by Claudia during the poster session.

We look forward to seeing new partnerships grow out of this event! 

Euro-BioImaging Nodes at IHI Brokerage event