Euretina President Professor Nicole Eter officially opened the 26th Congress on Thursday afternoon, welcoming registrants to Vienna.

“It is wonderful to look around this room and see our community gathered together once again. Almost 10,000 of us have come to Vienna from across Europe and around the world  — clinicians and researchers, teachers and trainees, colleagues from industry, and friends who have been part of EURETINA for many years.,” she said. Professor Eter reflected on the organisation’s beginnings and paid tribute to the six visionaries whose idea it was to create the society along with those who contributed to its growth through the years. She specifically mentioned three remarkable colleagues – Professor José Cunha-Vaz, Professor Jan van Meurs, and Professor Krystyna Pecold – who sadly passed away since the 2025 Congress. 

“José, Jan and Krystyna contributed to our community in different ways and at different moments in its history, but each leaves a legacy within EURETINA, within our profession, and in the many colleagues they taught, mentored and inspired,” Professor Eter said.

She highlighted the EURETINA Innovation Spotlight, which in its fourth year was attended by more than 900 registrants and supported by over 45 companies; features that are new at Euretina 2026, including World Retina @ Euretina, WSPOS X EURETINA Paediatric Retina Day, a  purpose-built Free Paper Forum, and a redeveloped Poster Hub; upcoming events in 2027; and formalisation of Euretina’s relationship with EyeSustain as their key retina partner. 

After thanking everyone whose efforts and support has made the meeting possible, Professor Eter introduced Professor Frank Holz, the 2026 Euretina Lecture Award recipient, In his talk titled “The Dark Side of the Moon: New Horizons in Dry AMD”, Professor Holz discussed the research challenges, progress, and strategies for addressing knowledge gaps and treatment needs for dry age-related macular degeneration.

The opening ceremony continued with Jens Folke Kiilgaard announcing that Dr Siegfried Wagner, University College London, UK, was the winner of the Ramin Tadayoni Award 2026 for his research project ‘Artificial-intelligence based detection and prediction of proliferative vitreoretinopathy using multimodal retinal imaging’.

Reinier Schlingermann, chair of the EURETINA Research Committee, announced that Sara Touhami from Sorbonne Université and Pitié Salpêtrière University Hospital, France was the recipient of the Euretina Retinal Medicine Clinical Research Award for her project, ‘Artificial intelligence for under diagnosed cardiac disease through retinal imaging’.

Next, Professor Anat Loewenstein announced that Diana Pauly, University of Leipzig, Germany, is receiving the Jacquelin Cigrang AMD Award for her research on intraocular immune stratification in geographic atrophy – INSIGHT-GA. Newly introduced in 2026, this one-time award provides a grant from the Jacqueline Cigrang AMD fund to support innovative research projects in the field of age-related macular degeneration.

Martin Zinkernagel announced the winners of the 2026 August Deutman Awards. 

• Best Free Paper – 1st place: Vinit Mahajan (United States); 2nd place: Joakim Thylefors (Sweden); 3rd place: Richard Kha (Australia) 
• Best Poster – 1st place: Carla Troyas, (Germany); 2nd place: Eleonora Riotto (United Kingdom); 3rd place: Sara Vaz-Pereira (Portugal)
• Best Video – 1st place: Kshitij Raizada (India); 2nd place: Arjun Aurora (Australia); 3rd place:  Joaquin Romano (Argentina)

Professor Eter returned to announce that 41 candidates passed the viva voce FEBO Retina Subspecialty exam on Wednesday and that José Dias de Costa (Portugal) achieved the highest score. 

Next, Professor Marcin Stopa recognised the exam liaisons of the EBO-EURETINA Subspecialty Exam and announced that Sofia Androudi, Camiel Boon, David Gaucher, Roxane Hillier, Louise O’Toole, Maximilian Pfau, Elisabetta Pilotto, and Hibba Quhill were receiving honourary diplomas.

“A diploma is only as credible as the examination behind it, and an examination is only as good as the people who build it. A year ago, on this stage in Paris, we honoured Nicole Eter and Jens Folke Kiilgaard, the colleagues who built this examination. Today we honour the eight colleagues who carry it forward,” Professor Stopa said. Concluding the opening ceremony, Professor Eter thanked those in attendance and invited everyone to join the Congress Welcome Reception in the auditorium’s foyer.