IIW Annual Report 2025

Advancing along our strategic Key Objective 3, IIW is making remarkable strides in expanding its impact on underrepresented regions, especially towards the Global South. As decided by the Board of Directors in the Winter Meetings, this currently focuses on the African continent, as the most rapidly industrializing region with the by far youngest population globally. This remarkable progress has been fueled by the tremendous efforts of the newly composed Working Group on Strategy and International Relations, which created a dedicated forum for African Member Societies during the Annual Assembly 2025. Initiated by the IIW Secretariat, this initiative is now being expanded through the Welding Community Development Committee to other regions around the world. It is important to emphasize that such initiatives do more than expand our community. Instead, they strengthen IIW as a whole, underlining the immense importance of welding and allied processes as key technologies for industrialization and digitalization. As your President, let me reiterate my invitation to all of us: our IIW community should not simply observe these incredible opportunities in the Global South from the sidelines, but actively engage in shaping them. Let us connect with these countries, interlocking research and development with education and training as well as with industrial application and support. We should see that most of our future Young Professionals will come from the Global South and thus, we need to provide proper education and training interlocked with research and development focusing on industrial application and support. This is the unrivaled strength of our IIW community. With immense pride, we now see large member societies from industrialized countries share this vision, actively supporting the establishment of ANBs and ATBs in emerging regions. Taking this commitment even further, a new version of the IIW Constitution was approved during the Annual Assembly, introducing the concept of Observer Member Societies, thus creating a smooth, welcoming, and inspiring pathway for potential new members to join our global network. Under Key Objective 4, 2025 marked an extraordinary year of progress in expanding access to the IIW system for Education, Training, Qualification, and Certification of both, personnel and companies. It has been incredibly exciting to witness myself the intensive and proactive efforts to further align the access conditions, making our programs globally more compatible impactful, and future-ready than ever before. Even more thrilling, we achieved major milestones in enhancing the global recognition of our offerings, most notably with the approval of the IIW proprietary scheme for the Certification of Welding Inspectors by the International Accreditation Forum. This represents a landmark achievement that underscores IIW’s leadership to harmonize the different systems worldwide. Looking ahead, IIW continues to anticipate the future by embedding new scientific and technical topics of strategic importance as standing items on the IAB agendas, ensuring that our organization remains at the cutting edge of innovation, education, and excellence in welding and allied technologies. As a cornerstone of our work, the Board of Directors, with the steadfast support of the IIW Secretariat, has been driving Key Objective 5 with great dedication, continuously enhancing IIW’s organizational and management structure to ensure that we effectively meet the needs of our global stakeholders in welding and allied processes. In 2025, this commitment reached a milestone with the approval of the revised IIW Constitution by the Extraordinary General Assembly. These strategic updates were designed to boost the efficiency of our organization and make IIW even more agile and responsive in an ever-evolving operational landscape, positioning us for continued success and global impact. As vivid example, the three permanent working groups in the Board of Directors are now headed each by the three Vice Presidents, with great competence and leadership experience in IIW. Let me take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to IIW CEO Luca Costa and the entire IIW Secretariat team for their extraordinary dedication in managing our global welding community. Their diligence, cooperation, professionalism, and friendliness have been truly remarkable, providing invaluable support to our entire network. My heartfelt thanks also go to the entire Board of Directors. It is your unwavering commitment, tremendous efforts, and immense support, which continue to strengthen our organization every day. Last but certainly not least, let me express my profound appreciation to each and every one of you for your growing voluntary contributions across our many commissions and working groups. Our incredible network provides the whole IIW with the strongest engine ever seen in a global organization, gaining ever more power and momentum. It fills me with great confidence that together we will continue to accelerate towards fresh professional perspectives and reaching new horizons. The year 2026 promises to be truly exciting, and we will witness further groundbreaking inventions, applications, and innovations that will emerge from our vibrant community across the diverse scientific and technical fields we explore. Let me wish you and your nearest all a peaceful, prosperous, and successful 2026, looking forward so much to continue in serving, collaborating, and celebrating achievements alongside you as your President, with my deepest respect and gratitude.

Prof. Thomas Böllinghaus IIW President 2023-2026