IFBIC 20259th International Forum
on Blast Injury Countermeasures

International cross-disciplinary investigation of physical causes of blast injury, vulnerability of anatomical systems and their functions to blasts, and methods to prevent, mitigate, and treat blast injuries.

In recent years, attacks using explosive devices occur frequently not only on battlefields and in regions of conflict but also in urban areas due to terrorism, resulting in a large number of blast injury victims. International cross-disciplinary collaboration is essential to investigate physical causes of blast injury, to characterize the vulnerability of anatomical systems and their functions to blasts, and to develop the means to prevent, mitigate and treat blast injuries.

Building upon the past successful meetings, the 9th International Forum on Blast Injury Countermeasures (IFBIC 2025) will be held from May 7 (Wed) to 9 (Fri), 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.

The objectives for the 9th Forum include:

1. Assembly of an international forum focused on multi-disciplinary science and medicine necessary to increase our understanding of blast injury and its countermeasures from bench to bedside
2. Achieving a mutual understanding of international efforts in blast injury research
3. Identifying knowledge gaps and overlapping efforts requiring collaborative research
4. Increasing understanding, promoting further collaboration, and sharing of information to improve prevention, clinical diagnosis, and treatment addressing the entire spectrum of blast-related injuries

The meeting agenda includes the following broad topic areas. More detailed information can be found in the First Announcement and Call for Papers. Innovative research beyond this topic list will also be considered:

1. Blast exposure monitoring, epidemiology and environmental hazards
2. Overview of participating nation's major efforts
3. Translational/Operational related blast efforts
4. National efforts for translating research into policy (e.g., individual countries, NATO, etc.)
5. Emerging combined blast effects and related injuries
6. Primary blast injury (due directly to shockwave effects)
7. Secondary (penetrating ballistic fragments) and tertiary (acceleration and blunt force) blast injury
8. Infections related to blast injuries (e.g., wounds)
9. Immune systems and blast injuries
10. Long-term effects, cumulative effects, and chronic symptoms due to blast exposure
11. Diagnostic measures / biomarkers
12. Computational modeling and simulation of blast phenomena and blast injury
13. Application of artificial intelligence, machine learning
14. New technology and methods for blast injury research and medicine
15. Translating anatomical and functional scaling from animal to human