23-27 November, 2026, Levi, Finland
Welcome to the BNMI 2026 Symposium – the 5th annual meeting of the Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructure (BNMI) network. The BNMI 2026 Symposium will be hosted by the Finnish Advanced Microscopy Node and takes place at the Levi Summit Event Center & Panorama Hotel, Levi, Finland, 23/24-27 November, 2026.
The goal of the BNMI network symposium is to bring the Nordic imaging infrastructures and life scientists closer together to strengthen our collaboration. With these meetings we aim to encourage interactions among the different Nordic imaging facilities and create interactive networks in life science imaging. By active networking between imaging facilities, researchers, developers and industry we seek to improve the quality and impact of microscopy in the Nordic countries.
Pre-symposium workshops dates: 23-24.11.2026
Symposium dates: 24-27.11.2026
Abstract submission CLOSED (21.08.2026)
Early bird registration CLOSED (7.08.2026)
Regular registration CLOSED (21.08.2026)
Late registration (w/o accommodation): DL 16.10.2026
We will offer an exciting scientific program, which will consist of industry exhibitions, workshops, scientific talks, poster sessions, and panel discussions. Topics that will be covered include:

EMBO member
Norwegian Radium Hospital, Norway

EPFL, Switzerland

Umeå University, Sweden

AI4Health Institute, Germany

Lund University, Sweden

Radboud University, Netherlands

University of Helsinki, Finland

University of Oulu, Finland
Hotel Levi Panorama sits on one of the Levi fell tops, just a 15-minute drive from Kittilä International Airport. Along with its unique location on the slopes, this venue offers a variety of services and activities, including skiing and hiking directly from the grounds. Levi Summit Congress and Exhibition Centre has multipurpose facilities and high-tech equipment, making it a first-class venue. Together, Levi Summit Congress and Exhibition Centre and Hotel Levi Panorama provide the perfect setting for the 5th BNMI symposium.
We hope you will join us in Levi for what promises to be an exciting and educational symposium!
PhD students, Postdocs and Imaging Facility staff are eligible to apply for a fellowship to cover the symposium package fee. Fellowships are available for applicants from Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland). To apply, applicants send an abstract for a presentation (poster or oral), and a motivation letter by 26 June, 2026. Applications should be sent to the following address: bnmi-2026@ibv.uio.no
This meeting is organized in collaboration with the Finnish Advanced Microscopy Node, University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University, and the Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructure. Please email bnmi-2026@ibv.uio.no if you have any questions.
BNMI2026 symposium is an all-inclusive meeting, and different symposium packages include: registration fee (access to all symposium), symposium materials, accommodation in Levi Panorama Hotel (single or double rooms), all meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, special symposium dinner), coffee breaks. Participants are expected to book and pay their own travel expenses.
All participants must register for the symposium. Please note that the number of available places for BNMI2026 is limited, and registration will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.
A late registration package is availeble and includes the registration fee (access to all symposium), symposium materials, all meals (lunch, dinner, special symposium dinner), coffee breaks.
Pre-symposium workshops dates: 23-24.11.2026
Symposium dates: 24-27.11.2026
Abstract submission: CLOSED (21.08.2026)
Exhibition registration: CLOSED (30.06.2026)
Early bird registration: CLOSED (7.08.2026)
Registration: CLOSED (20.08.2026)
Late registration (w/o accommodation): DL 16.10.2026
Note! Registration may close before the deadline if the symposium reaches full capacity
Academic & Non-Academic
Package 1: 4 nights in single room (Mon-Fri) 1050€
Package 2: 4 nights in double room (Mon-Fri) 850€
Package 3: 3 nights in single room (Tue-Fri) 850€
Package 4: 3 nights in double room (Tue-Fri) 650€
Student*
Package 5: 4 nights in a double room (Mon-Fri) 650€
Package 6: 3 nights in a double room (Tue-Fri) 500€
Academic & Non-Academic
Package 1: 4 nights in single room (Mon-Fri) 1150€
Package 2: 4 nights in double room (Mon-Fri) 950€
Package 3: 3 nights in single room (Tue-Fri) 950€
Package 4: 3 nights in double room (Tue-Fri) 750€
Student*
Package 5: 4 nights in a double room (Mon-Fri) 750€
Package 6: 3 nights in a double room (Tue-Fri) 550€
Academic & Non-Academic
Late registration fee: 500€
* Students must prove their student status upon registration
BNMI2026 symposium invites participants to submit abstracts presented as poster or oral presentations. The program will be filled with selected talks from submitted abstracts, so we encourage all participants to submit your topic as early as possible. While all attendees are encouraged to submit a scientific abstract, this is mandatory for PhD students.
The abstract submission is opened until August 21 for poster presentations (for oral presentations submission is CLOSED).
Abstracts from industry partners are welcome for poster presentations.
PhD students, Postdocs and Imaging Facility staff are eligible to apply for a fellowship to cover the symposium package fee. Fellowships are available for applicants from Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland). To apply, applicants send an abstract for a presentation (poster or oral), and a motivation letter by 26 June, 2026. Applications should be sent to the following address: bnmi-2026@ibv.uio.no
If needed, certificates of attendance or certificates from poster/talk presentation will be provided upon request.
The BNMI2026 symposium will start with pre-symposium workshops, which will run in parallel on Monday and Tuesday, November 23-24. The symposium will start on Tuesday at noon, November 24, and end on Friday at noon, November 27. We will offer an exciting scientific program, which will consist of industry exhibitions, workshops, scientific talks, poster session, and a panel discussion. More information about the pre-symposium workshops can be found on “Pre-symposium workshops” tab.
Topics that will be covered during the symposium:
13:00 – 17:00 Arrival
12:00 – 15:00 Lunch
17:00 – 19:00 Pre-symposium Workshops
19:00 – 21:00 Dinner
09:00 – 11:00 Pre-symposium Workshops
11:30 – 13:00 Lunch
11:00 – 13:00 Registration
13:00 – 13:30 Welcome and introduction
13:30 – 14:15 Company talks
14:15 – 15:00 Coffee and company exhibition
15:00 – 15:45 Company talks
15:45 – 16:45 Panel Discussion
Who Builds the Future of Microscopy?
Shaping the Partnership Between Industry and Nordic Imaging Facilities
16:45 – 18:00 Free time
18:00 – 20:00 Dinner
09:00 – 10:30 Session 1 – Mesoscopy & 3D Imaging
10:30 – 11:15 Coffee and company exhibition
11:15 – 12:45 Session 2 – Advances in Microscopy
12:45 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 16:00 Free time & activities
16:00 – 17:00 Following lysosome dynamics and repair with light microscopy, EMBO Keynote lecture, Harald Stenmark, Oslo University Hospital

17:00 – 19:00 Company exhibition & Poster session
19:00 – 21:00 Dinner
08:30 – 10:00 Session 3 – Imaging Applications
10:00 – 10:45 Coffee and company exhibition
10:45 – 12:00 Session 4 – Label-Free Imaging
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 Session 5 – High-Content Imaging & Image Analysis
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee and company exhibition
15:30 – 19:30 Social Program
20:00 – 24:00 Symposium dinner & party
09:00 – 10:30 Session 6 – Electron Microcopy
10:30 – 10:45 Closing remarks
10:45 – 12:00 Grab and go lunch and departure

EMBO member
Norwegian Radium Hospital, Norway

EPFL, Switzerland

Umeå University, Sweden

AI4Health Institute, Germany

Lund University, Sweden

Radboud University, Netherlands

University of Helsinki, Finland

University of Oulu, Finland
The BNMI2026 symposium is hosted by the Finnish Advanced Microscopy Node and takes place at the Levi Summit Event Center and Panorama Hotel, Tunturitie 205, 99130 Levi, Finland.
Hotel Levi Panorama sits on one of the Levi fell tops, just a 15-minute drive from Kittilä International Airport. For BNMI2026 participants, Hotel Levi Panorama offers accommodation, restaurant services, and a range of facilities such as scenic saunas on the seventh floor, a fitness room, and ski equipment storage.
Hotel Levi Panorama is connected to the Levi Summit Event Center, which has multipurpose facilities and high-tech equipment, making it a first-class venue for the BNMI2026 symposium. The venue offers 220 seat auditorium, meeting rooms, and a big lobby for networking and coffee breaks.
Levi’s downhill and cross-country skiing season typically opens in the first week of October. Along with its unique location on the slopes, Hotel Levi Panorama is the only ski-in ski-out hotel in Levi. Hotel Levi Panorama also serves as a ticket sales point, and symposium participants can conveniently purchase ski passes for the Levi slopes at the reception. Levi Village is easily accessible from the hotel via the Levi Express gondola (scenic cabin lift), or participants can take Panorama Stairs, which also bring you to Levi Village.
Together, Levi Summit Event Center and Hotel Levi Panorama provide the perfect setting for the 5th BNMI symposium.
Levi Summit Event Center and Levi Panorama Hotel, Tunturitie 205, 99130 Levi, Finland
Venue: The BNMI2026 will be held at the Levi Summit Event Center & Panorama Hotel, Levi, Finland, 23/24-27 November, 2026.
Address: Levi Summit Event Center and Levi Panorama Hotel, Tunturitie 205, 99130 Levi, Finland
Webpage: https://www.kassiopeia.fi/hotel-levi-panorama/en/
Tips to reach Levi: https://www.levi.fi/en/info/general/arrival-at-levi/
By plane – Kittilä
Kittilä Airport is international airport located in the heart of Lapland, about 14 kilometers from the Hotel Levi Panorama. The airport has scheduled flights from major European cities and multiple daily connections from Helsinki. Check flights to Levi from Europe: https://www.levi.fi/en/info/general/arrival-at-levi/
Kittilä Airport transfer:
Tunturilinjat Oy operates a shuttle service from Kittilä Airport to Levi, with a stop at Hotel Levi Panorama upon request.
For schedules, prices, and more details, visit: https://tunturilinjat.fi/en/schedules/
Return transfer to the Kittilä Airport
The return trip to Kittilä Airport must be booked at the hotel reception at least 24 hours in advance. The bus does not stop at the hotel automatically; reception will inform the driver about passengers to be picked up from the hotel. On Friday, November 27, the shuttle bus will be organized for the symposium participants.
Kittilä and Levi Taxi +358 200 99800
By plane – Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi Airport is international airport located about 170 kilometers from the BNMI2026 symposium venue. The airport is serviced by flights from most major European cities and daily connections from Helsinki.
By train – Rovaniemi
You can reach Rovaniemi by train from several Finnish cities, with direct daily connections operated by VR, https://www.vr.fi/en. Cities with train connections to Rovaniemi: Helsinki, Tampere, Oulu, Turku. Some trains are a car-carrier trains, so you can reach Rovaniemi by train and drive the rest of the trip to Levi in your car.
Transportation from Rovaniemi to Levi
The distance from Rovaniemi to Levi is approximately 170 km, with a driving time of around 2-2.5 hours. Take the E75 north from Rovaniemi, then turn onto road 79 towards Levi. Several daily bus connections operate between Rovaniemi and Levi, especially during the winter season. For schedules, prices, and ticket bookings, visit: https://www.matkahuolto.fi/
Rovaniemi Taxi +358 200 88000
The BNMI2026 symposium participants will be accommodated at the Hotel Levi Panorama. The hotel rooms will be available on the day of arrival from 15.00 onwards. On the day of departure, the rooms will be available until 11.00.
Levi Panorama Hotel offers pre- and post-nights for the BNMI2026 symposium participants. Extra night reservations can be made through hotel reception panorama@kassiopeia.fi (in the email mention the BNMI2026 symposium participation). Extra nights cancellations only in writing to the hotel’s email: panorama@kassiopeia.fi
Levi’s downhill and cross-country skiing season typically opens in the first week of October. Along with its unique location on the slopes, Hotel Levi Panorama is the only ski-in ski-out hotel in Levi. Hotel Levi Panorama also serves as a ticket sales point, and symposium participants can conveniently purchase ski passes for the Levi slopes at the reception. More information about Levi Ski resort: https://www.levi.fi/en/info/levi-ski-resort/
Zero Point rental provides the equipment for all winter sports: alpine skis, telemark skis, touring skis, nordic back-country skis, cross-country skis, snowboards, pulk sleds, snowshoes, bikes and fatbikes. Zero Point Rental also offers professional maintenance services for your own gear. Webpage: https://www.levi.fi/en/services/zero-point-rental/
Levi Village is easily accessible from the hotel via the Levi Express gondola (scenic cabin lift), or participants can take Panorama Stairs, which also bring you to Levi Village.
Find more Levi’s travel tips: https://www.kassiopeia.fi/en/travel-levi/
We are also organizing BNMI2026 pre-symposium technical workshops, which will be hosted by companies and Euro-BioImaging Finland image analysts. Our workshops will be run in parallel so that the symposium participants will have an opportunity to participate in several of them. Sessions on Monday and Tuesday will be identical.
Time: Monday, 23 November (17:00–19:00) – Tuesday, 24 November (09:00–11:00)
Location: Levi Summit Event Center, Exhibition rooms, Tunturitie 205, 99130 Levi, Finland
Workshops will be run onsite. Registration is required and will open on 14 September.
1) ZEISS LATTICE LIGHTSHEET
From 2D to 4D – seeing biology unfold in real time
Session duration: 1 hour
Join the pre-workshops on 23. or 24. November, including a remote live demonstration from the ZEISS demo lab in Germany. Discover how ZEISS Lattice Lightsheet 7 (LLS7) enables high-resolution, low-phototoxicity 4D imaging of living cells and how established 2D assays can be transformed into dynamic, quantitative 4D high-content experiments, including applications in 96-well plates and drug discovery.
Coming September 2026: Get a first look at the next-generation ZEISS Lattice Lightsheet 7 with SPIM-SMLM — bringing single-molecule localization microscopy to the Lattice Lightsheet platform with high SNR throughout the sample volume.
One platform – from dynamic cell biology to single-molecule imaging.
2) SMART MICROSCOPY WORKSHOP – POWERED BY NIKON AX R NSPARC
Session duration: 1 hour
Join us for demonstrations focused on Smart Microscopy pipeline development enabling high content imaging, automated analysis, and AI driven microscopy. You will have the opportunity to take a look at Nikons latest point scanning confocal – AX R with NSPARC super-resolution detector and learn more about how to leverage the NIS Elements software platform to maximise automation and data output. These demonstrations are ideal for researchers looking to increase throughput, improve reproducibility, and extract richer biological insight using advanced imaging and analysis tools.
3) OY G.W.BERG & CO WORKSHOPS
Each workshop session duration: 45 min
4) LEICA MICROSYSTEMS and TRIOLAB OY WORKSHOP
Viventis SCAPE: New light sheet microscopy platform for high-speed 3D imaging using standard sample carriers
Session duration: 45 min
Here we present the new Leica Viventis SCAPE, based on oblique plane microscopy (OPM) and swept confocally aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) technologies. This system is designed for high-speed, high-throughput volumetric light sheet imaging and is compatible with commonly used carriers, including glass slides, Petri dishes, and well plates. Viventis SCAPE enables fast 3D imaging without the need for specialized holders or deviations from common sample mounting protocols. Join this session to discover how Viventis SCAPE delivers fast, gentle, and accessible light sheet imaging—bringing high-speed 3D microscopy into standard laboratory workflows.
5) BRUKER WORKSHOP
From Light-Sheet Imaging to Data Insight: An Integrated Workflow for 3D Microscopy
Session duration: 1 hour
Modern 3D microscopy workflows require not only rapid image acquisition, but also efficient solutions for handling, storing, and processing large imaging datasets. This workshop presents an integrated workflow combining imaging on the TruLive3D Light Sheet microscope with centralized data management and processing using Acquifer HIVE. The TruLive3D Imager enables multiplexed acquisition of large numbers of samples and experimental conditions within a single experiment, supporting scalable studies of organoids, spheroids, and other complex biological specimens. Expanded samples will be used to illustrate the workflow and demonstrate the generation of large-volume 3D datasets. Acquired data is seamlessly transferred to Acquifer HIVE, a multi-user high-performance platform for image data storage, management, visualization, and processing, providing a streamlined end-to-end workflow from image acquisition to data exploration and collaboration.
6) MILTENYI BIOTEC WORKSHOP
Hands on light sheet imaging + A workflow combining 3D imaging with multiplex analysis
Session duration: 1 hour
Short description will be announced soon
7) THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC HANDS-ON WORKSHOP
Leveraging AI to accelerate image analysis
Session duration: 2 hours
Accurate alignment of serial sections and time-consuming manual segmentation remain major bottlenecks in microscopy image analysis, often limiting throughput, reproducibility, and quantitative consistency. This hands-on session focuses on building an efficient and scalable workflow in Amira Software, addressing these challenges through automated alignment, advanced pre-processing, AI-assisted segmentation, and robust 3D quantification. Participants will work directly within the software to streamline analysis, reduce manual intervention, and generate reliable quantitative insights from complex biological datasets.
NOTE: As this is a hands-on session, participants are required to bring their own laptop computer and mouse.
8) FAIR IMAGE DATA: TOOLS & WORKFLOWS – COMMUNITY-DRIVEN WORKSHOP
Session duration: 2 hours
Short description will be announced soon
We are deeply grateful to NordForsk, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Åbo Akademi University Foundation and EMBO for their generous support of the 5th Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructure (BNMI 2026) Symposium, taking place in Levi, Finland.
We invite companies to join the BNMI2026 symposium, which provides an excellent opportunity to showcase your innovations in imaging and image analysis to professionals in the field. We offer a range of sponsorship packages designed to ensure strong visibility and direct engagement with participants, including pre-symposium workshops, company talks and exhibitions. Availability is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
You can find in this document a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, together with some practical information about the symposium and venue.
Exhibition registration deadline 30.06.2026
Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructure (BNMI) aims to enhance international competitiveness and support the development of world-leading advanced microscopy environments across the Nordic region.
Scientific Committee of the BNMI Board
Local Organizing Committee
Finnish Advanced Microscopy Node
Please email bnmi-2026@ibv.uio.no if you have any questions.