#EBW24 Live: Opening ceremony
The Europe Biobank Week (EBW) Congress, jointly organised between BBMRI-ERIC (the European Research Infrastructure for Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources in Health and Life Science) and ESBB (the European, African and Middle Eastern Society for Biobanking and Biopreservation) kicked off at The Hofburg Conference Centre in Vienna, Austria on 15 May 2024.
EBW brings together researchers, biobank staff, institutions and industry who engage in high-quality scientific sessions. The 2024 Congress theme is: “Strengthening Biobanks and Biorepositories: Collaborative approaches for a sustainable future” with sessions encompassing the latest developments together with fundamental biobanking themes.
Dr. Ayat Salman, President at ESBB and Prof. Jens K. Habermann, Director General at BBMRI-ERIC who have led the joint organising committee opened the congress.
Welcoming the opening speaker Prof. Martin Polaschek, Austrian Federal Minister of Education Science and Research, Habermann said:
“Austria is the hosting country for BBMRI-ERIC and we are sincerely thankful for Austria’s continued support and dedication to BBMRI-ERIC. Our sincere thank goes particularly to Minister Polaschek and his entire team”.
Minister Polaschek highlghted the value of joining forces, going beyond borders and continents in the biobanking field and the urge to tackle and globally address the theme of the datafication of biobanks. He also remarked on the importance of the partnership between BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB that has allowed the global biobanking community to come together:
“The collaboration between BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB has been in place since their inception, bringing together the European biobanking and stakeholder communities, as well as those in the Middle East and Africa. The excellent collaborations between these two organisations has been well demonstrated by the organisation of the European Biobank Week conference series over the past ten years. The format of the European Biobank Week is a clear display of BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB commitment to advance the science behind biobanking and the congress programme reflects its joint mission to realise the potential of Biobanks to address some of the most pressing health and environmental challenges of our time”.
Prof. Jens K. Habermann presented the past strengths of the BBMRI-ERIC community and its future perspectives. Dr. Georg Göbel and Dr. Luka Brcic from the Austrian National Node of BBMRI (BBMRI.at) brought the delegates to Austria in their presentation on BBMRI Austria.
Dr. Göbel said:
“We are realising our transformation process from sample collecting and sample processing towards the digitalisation area and as Prof. Habermann and also Minister Polaschek stated, this becomes a very important, key aspect for further research throughout Europe and also beyond Europe”.
Finally, Dr. Salman presented ESBB mission:
“I would like to remind everybody that ESBB mission is really to advance bio sharing for a better world through mobilising, inspiring and educating the biobanking community”.
The opening ceremony ended with a Q & A session.