[en] The International Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants was held from 12-15 August, 2008 at the Vienna International Centre. Almost 500 participants, more than half of them from developing countries, attended the Symposium. Nine international organizations and 82 member countries, among these 60 developing countries, were represented at the Symposium. The Symposium was opened by IAEA's Dr. W. Burkart, Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications. Dr. S. Pandey, Director, delivered opening remarks on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Also in the opening session, Professor R. Phillips (USA), Vice President of the International Crop Science Society, delivered a keynote address on 'Expanding the Boundaries of Gene Variation for Crop Improvement', and Dr. P.J.L. Lagoda, Head of the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section in the IAEA, introduced the role of the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme on Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in networking and fostering of cooperation in plant mutation genetics and breeding. Dr. T. Ishige, President of the Japanese National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences summarized the opportunities and the way forward for plant mutagenesis in the genomics era, and Dr. A.M. Cetto, Deputy Director General of the Department of Technical Cooperation in the IAEA, officially closed the Symposium after highlighting the role of technical cooperation in promoting the use of mutation techniques in Member States. Apart from opening and closing session, the Symposium was organized into two Plenary Sessions, 10 Concurrent Sessions, and one Workshop. Four hundred twenty-four abstracts were submitted for the Symposium - out of these, 129 papers were selected for oral presentation (including invited talks) and 184 for poster presentation. The Symposium was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations through the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. The great cooperation and support of the following organizations contributed to the success of the Symposium and is highly commended: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC, India); Chinese Society of Agricultural Biotechnology, European Association for Research and Plant Breeding, Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, and National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (Japan). Overview of topics of the Symposium. The year 2008 marked the 80th anniversary of mutation induction in crop plants. Although induction of mutations had often been considered as accidental for a long time since it was discovered, it has been globally explored and has significantly contributed to increased agricultural production over the past half century. During the past 10 years, more and more molecular biological studies have proven that mutations are not mere 'accidents', but that they could be deliberately induced, using various methods. Meanwhile, induced mutations have become more and more useful and important in modern genetic studies, such as gene discovery and function elucidation. By integrating molecular techniques, such as high throughput mutation screening techniques, induced mutations are now widely expected to play an even greater role in plant improvement than ever before. Progress in all those fields was repeatedly reported by various groups at the Symposium, which not only demonstrated the recent renaissance of mutation techniques but also outlined a bright future for these classic techniques