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The European Magnetic Resonance Forum originated at Paul C. Lauterbur's laboratory in the United States when some of the European research group members decided that the idea and basics of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should be brought and taught to European scienists and medical doctors. It is a branch ("Chapter") of TRTF.

The first Annual Meeting of the EMRF, i.e., the first "European Workshop on Magnetic Resonance in Medicine" was held in Mons, Belgium, in 1983, followed by meetings in Wiesbaden, Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Zurich, Cologne, and Locarno. All these meetings were strictly "invited speakers only", arranged as annual meeting presenting the state-of-the-art of MR technology, imaging and spectroscopy. SMRM (today ISMRM), the US-based Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, was the international scientific partner and thus introduced to Europe.

In 1987, EMRF agreed to cooperate with the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology and support this society with the aim of creating one major annual European MR conference.

The meeting in Berlin in 1988 was the first arranged together by both institutions. This meeting was a big step forward in the number of participants: 1,100 were officially counted, compared to 250-300 who attended the prior annual meetings. The tremendous success was also due to the fact that this meeting was open to proffered papers. However, the size also changed its mood from a "family" size meeting.

After organizing together three more conferences, the collaboration with the European Society was discontinued in 1991. The EMRF Foundation was to focus again on educational courses and small meetings, whereas the ESMRMB was to aim upon annual scientific meetings as a platform for the presentation of European scientific output in MR research.

Since then EMRF has not been involved in large scale conferences but has focused upon small size meetings with less than 250 participants ("State-of-the-Art" meetings), less than 80 participants (European Workshop "Special Topic" meetings) and less than 30 participants (teaching courses).

Over the years, more than 2,500 participants from all over the world received an introduction to basic and advanced magnetic resonance and its applications in medicine at such special teaching courses. More than 120 outstanding scientists in their field from Europe and North America shared their knowledge with these participants.

The Foundation has arranged numerous teaching and continuing education courses, mostly in English, but also in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian. Dedicated seminars were aimed at advanced basic and clinical science applications. Upon request, the Foundation will support teaching courses by supplying teaching material and sponsoring speakers. However, strict rules and standards apply for such sponsorships.

Slowly, new objectives were added. During the last fifteen years, the Foundation has been increasingly approached to provide travel grants, mostly by young scientists in the former East bloc and in developing countries. This includes grants for conferences organized by the EMRF, but also for the European Congress of Radiology and the annual meetings of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology. There has also been an increase in applications for training and research grants, computer equipment, and even clinical radiological equipment.

Increased sponsorship, mostly from private sources, has made it possible to add to the number of travel and educational grants. In the future, these activities are to be expanded by additional fund-raising efforts.

Since 1985, there has been an intensive collaboration with the World Health Organization, both with WHO's Headquarters in Geneva and with WHO's Regional Office in Copenhagen. WHO sponsored the EMRF meetings in Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, and London, thus opening a door for participants with travel restrictions.

This sponsorship continued in 1993 when EMRF organized a major conference on "The Impact of MRI on the Health System – Integration of MRI into the Health System and Development of Diagnostic Pathways for its Proper Use" in Lugano and in 2001 with "MRI in Small Communities".

Among the special topic seminars EMRF has organized are: "Flow, Diffusion, and Perfusion" (Namur, 1985), "Paramagnetic Contrast Agents in the Central Nervous System" (Düsseldorf, 1989), and "Three-Dimensional MRI – An Integrated Update of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Three-Dimensional Postprocessing" (Obergurgl, 1992), and "Ethics in Diagnostic Imaging" (Sophia Antipolis, 1999; several follow-ups, the last one in 2009).

Bi-annual meetings are devoted to the development and applications of contrast agents in MR imaging. The first one was arranged in Trondheim in 1988, followed by conferences in Bordeaux in 1990; Hamburg in 1992; Santiago de Compostela in 1994; Santa Margherita Ligure in 1996; Fuschl (Salzburg) in 1998; Attard (Malta) in 2000; Budapest in 2002, Porto in 2004, Vilnius in 2006, Valencia in 2008, Mons in 2010 – and, planned, Berlin in 2011.

EMRF's effort to bring together researchers and physicians wanting to apply MRI and MRS fell on a fruitful soil with seminars organized with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznan in 1985 and 1987, as well as with the Centro Internacional de Fisica and UNESCO in Bogotá in 1984, 1986, and 1990. Teaching courses were also organized in Hungary, Greece, Norway, France, Egypt, and for several commercial companies at their facilities.

"Progress in MRI" in Locarno, Switzerland, 1992 (left); and basic teaching course in Colombia (bottom) .