Welcome

Introduction
It was our pleasure to welcome over 130 participants to the Inselspital in Bern for the 16th Interdisciplinary Research Conference on Biomaterials (Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Biomatériaux Ostéo-articulaires Injectables). Our goal for this meeting was to build on the success of previous GRIBOI meetings and to offer a stimulating and multidisciplinary examination of current and future bone substitutes and injectable biomaterials. It was our desire to attract a larger number of clinicians to the meeting to provide the clinical context for the advances which are being made in the development of novel biomaterials. With the scientific program outlined on following abstracts page, we were able to offer not only a detailed look into the technical aspects of biomaterials, but also a broad and insightful overview of the application of these materials and the clinical experiences which are beginning to be collected. We can now draw on the results of multi-year follow-up studies to objectively characterize the performance and potential of the technical developments which we are making. For the first time, the participants were able to view a live surgery and to experience first-hand the clinical application of injectable biomaterials. The GRIBOI meeting in Bern, with its single-session format and modest size, stimulated enthusiastic and productive discussions during the oral and poster sessions, and promoted the exchange of opinions and insights between scientists and clinicians. We would like to thank the scientific committee, our sponsors, and especially the participants for contributing to a very successful meeting.