Organizers
AddictionsCEE 2026 builds on the success of the previous editions - AddictEU 2025 and 2023 in Brussels and AddictCZSK 2024 in Bratislava - further expanding the dialogue on addiction and mental health to the broader Central and Eastern European region.
The conference will bring together leading scientists, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and civil society representatives to discuss addiction as a multidimensional public health and social challenge. Covering topics from illicit and licit drug use to digital dependence, obesity, and emerging psychomodulatory substances, AddictionsCEE 2026 will serve as a regional platform for evidence-based policymaking, knowledge exchange, and cooperation between national experts and European institutions.
Institute for Rational
Addiction Policies (IRAP)
Institute for Mental Health
and Addiction Studies (IMHAS)
Romanian Association
Against AIDS (ARAS)
Institute for Mental Health and Addiction Studies (IMHAS), builds an international cooperation network focusing on the Czech Republic and the Central and Eastern European region. IMHAS activities include conducting research projects, developing methodological recommendations, analyzing legislation, and organizing professional platforms for sharing innovative approaches. As an organization, IMHAS contribute to the development of policy and practice in mental health and addiction based on current scientific knowledge and data.
The Romanian Association Against AIDS was founded in 1992, in Bucharest, as one of the first NGOs working in the field of HIV in Romania. Ever since, ARAS has been working in prevention of HIV, viral hepatitis, STIs, TB among general population and in vulnerable groups, in support for people living with HIV, hepatitis, TB, in advocacy for access to medical and social services. ARAS is the first provider of harm reduction services for people who use drugs (started in 1997) and, as such, runs at present two methadone substitution centers and a drop-in and outreach harm reduction service. ARAS is also the only provider of PrEP services in Romania, in Bucharest, Cluj and Timișoara.
Institute for Rational Addiction Policies (IRAP) is a multi-disciplinary think tank based in Brno, Czech Republic, that gathers independent and renowned experts who study the topic of addiction from different perspectives (public and mental health, legislation, economics and market modelling, tax issues, education, and sociological aspects). Together with prevention and awareness-raising activities, IRAP implements research projects to generate insight and important data that could serve as input for legislative and non-legislative discussions at the national and EU levels.