The recent and concomitant advances in molecular biology and imaging for diagnosis and therapy will place in vivo imaging techniques at the centre of their clinical transfer. Before that, a wide range of multidisciplinary preclinical research is already taking place. The involvement of radiologists in this new field of imaging sciences is therefore absolutely mandatory during these two phases of development. Achievement of such objectives requires the refinement of strategy within the European radiological community and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) will have to drive a number of actions to stimulate the younger generation of radiologists and to facilitate their access to knowledge. For that purpose, a molecular imaging (MI) subcommittee of the ESR Research Committee based on a group of involved radiologists will be constituted to develop contacts with other constitutive committees and associated societies to provide proposals to our community.