Addiction is a major public health issue affecting millions worldwide. Innovative solutions are urgently needed to combat this crisis, reduce its impact, and save lives. The Global Addiction Therapeutics Innovation Day serves as a platform for fostering collaboration between academia, the health sector, regulatory agencies, and industry. The goal is to-drive innovation, and accelerate the development of effective tools and technologies for assessment and treatments for addiction and its comorbidities. By bringing together experts from various fields, this event aims to catalyze the development of new modalities for assessment, therapies, and interventions. There are several reasons why convening such an event matters:

Bridging the Gap: There is often a disconnection between scientific discoveries and their implementation in real-world settings. This event aims to bridge that gap by facilitating dialogue and collaboration between clinicians from the addiction medicine/psychiatry academia, industry professionals, and researchers from both, facilitating the translation of groundbreaking research into tangible benefits for patients.

Enhancing Investment: Securing funding is a significant hurdle in the journey from research to market. The presence of senior venture capital and other types of investors and funding agencies at this event provides a unique opportunity for startups and established companies to showcase their innovations, attract investment, and accelerate their growth.

Knowledge Sharing: The event will feature multiple panels and lectures, offering participants a chance to share their experiences, learn from each other, and stay updated on the latest trends and advancements in the field of addiction medicine therapeutics. This exchange of knowledge is crucial for driving progress and fostering a collaborative environment.

Building a Stronger Community: By gathering many leaders from clinics, universities, industry, regulatory agencies and investment communities, this event creates a robust network of professionals committed to improving addiction treatment. These connections can lead to long-term collaborations, innovative projects, and a stronger, more unified approach to addressing addiction.

Recognizing Breakthroughs_The ISAM Innovation Award: To further support creative and impactful ideas, the Global Addiction Therapeutics Innovation Day features the Innovation Award—a global competition that highlights promising early-stage solutions in addiction care. The competition recognizes individuals, research teams, startups, and healthcare professionals who are developing new ways to assess, prevent, or treat addiction and its related conditions. Finalists are selected through a fair review process and invited to present their work at the event. The winners receive international recognition and support to help turn their ideas into real-world solutions. This award celebrates innovation that can truly make a difference in people’s lives. For more information on ISAM Innovation Award and GATID 2025 awardees, visit https://isamweb.org/innovation-award.

 

Save the date! The second Global Addiction Therapeutics Innovation Day will be held on September 30th, 2026 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

 

 

Join us for the second annual GATID, with panels & Keynotes on (1) Innovative clinical trials & therapeutic pipelines, (2) AI, VR, neurotechnology & behavior science, (3) Regulatory pathways & real-world deployment, (3) Lived experience in product design, (4) Academia-industry commercialization strategies.

 

Download the event flyer here: GATID 2026 Flyer

 

What is Innovation?

The word “Innovation”, by the NIH competency dictionary, is defined as developing new insights into situations and applying different and novel solutions to make improvements. This event includes a broad range of activities in addiction medicine from prevention, assessment & diagnosis to addiction treatment, relapse prevention & rehabilitation by both individual and population-based approaches.

Potential Fields of Innovation in Prevention & Treatment of Addictions

Who is Invited?

We would like to invite all companies, startups, and entrepreneurs active in developing products for addiction prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation to join us for “Global Addiction Therapeutics Innovation Day (GATID)” This is an ISAM event designed for academia/industry partnership, focusing on innovation and investment in newest technologies for helping patients affected by addictions and their comorbidities. This event will take place on September 30th, 2026 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands as part of the official pre-conference activities of the ISAM 28th Global Congress. Bringing together more than many leaders from clinics, universities, industry, and investment communities, this unique gathering aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and visions for this evolving field.

At ISAM’s Innovations Day, both innovators and established companies will have the opportunity to share their ideas, product and company narratives with clinicians, scientists, venture capitalists, engineers, regulatory agencies, and industry professionals. Aligned with the theme of the day, participating companies are invited to spotlight the challenges and advantages of innovation specific to their products from discovery to implementation in communities. The agenda for the day will include multiple panels and talks, ensuring that all the registered, invited, and willing participants have the opportunity for podium time, either individually or as part of panel discussions.

In addition to the presenting companies, senior venture capital investors from major corporations will be invited. This offers an excellent platform for you and your company to showcase your vision, ideas, achievements, forge new connections, learn from peers, assess progress, and become more competitive and successful in the future market of addiction therapeutics.

 

GATID2026 Organizing Team

Chair: ISAM President, Hamed AlGhaferi
Scientific Director: Hamed Ekhtiari
Leadership Team: Marc Potenza, Alexander Balddachino, Yasse Khazaal, Tarek Gawad, Susanna Galea-Singer, Atul Ambekar, Jens Reimer, Philipp Hiller (ISAM2025), Mary Janssen van Raay (ISAM2026)
Technical and Intellectual Inputs: Ivan Montoya (NIDA), Anja Busse (UNODC), Marica Ferri (EUDA), Dzmitry Krupchanka (WHO), Anne Lingford-Hughes (Addiction Mission, UK)
Compliance Officer: Roshan Bhad
ISAM Officer: Marilyn Dorozio
Executive Team: Philipp Hiller (ISAM2025), Mary Janssen van Raay (ISAM2026), Yasser Gawad, Mehran Zare-Bidoky, Arash Zonoozi, Mehmet Serhat Yildirim, Fateme-Sadat Abolghasemi, Başak Ünübol, Ediz Eyüpoğlu, Jenna Butner, Mehran Zare-Bidoky, Henning Vieker, Kirsten Lehmann, Sayena Ghofrani

 

The First World Innovation Day for Addiction Therapeutics was launched on May 25th, in Hamburg, Germany as a full day pre-conference event for the ISAM 2025 Annual Congress. (Event Agenda: ISAM GATID 2025 Agenda, Program Book: ISAM GATID 2025 Speakers and Abstracts)

 

 

The Application and Industry Sponsorship Process

We encourage all companies, startups, and entrepreneurs actively developing products for addiction prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation to consider participating in this event. If you are interested, please submit your letter of interest by emailing the ISAM office at isam.mdorozio@gmail.com with CC to innovation@isamweb.org to join the event at your earliest convenience. The email’s subject line should be “Expressing Interest in ISAM 2025 Innovation Day”. Subsequently, you will hear from us.

Please note that the established companies selected to participate will enter into an agreement with the ISAM through which the responsibilities/liabilities/entitlements of each of the parties shall be articulated and agreed upon. Please also note that each company selected to participate will, as a part of the agreement with ISAM, provide an unrestricted grant to the ISAM, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization registered in Canada, besides paying the registration fee for the ISAM 2025 conference.