On 14 - 16 April 2015, the EAGE will host the 18th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery in Dresden, Germany. This bi-annual symposium is the leading event in Europe on this subject. Each meeting is held in a different city in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East. By changing the location each time we hold this event we hope that more people (whether they work in oil companies, service companies, universities or research institutes) from different regions will get a chance to attend the meeting and be briefed on the latest developments in the areas of Improved and Enhanced Oil Recovery. Oil was discovered in Germany in the 1860s and it is currently the 6th largest oil producer and the largest energy consumer in Europe. This, along with its central location and excellent transport links, makes it an ideal location to hold the next IOR Symposium. Global energy demand, and in particular demand for oil, continues to grow but new discoveries are becoming fewer and smaller. Oil companies large and small are therefore realizing that an average recovery factor of 40% means 60% of oil is yet to be produced. As a result they are placing more and more emphasis on EOR and IOR as a way of replacing reserves. Already engineers have achieved over 60% recovery in some fields. The challenge is to achieve this in the majority of fields. The theme of this conference is ‘Overcoming the Barriers’ – what is stopping us achieving 60% recovery and how are we going to make this the norm? We need better science and engineering, to share our ideas and to learn from good practice in other companies. I therefore invite you to submit papers, come to Dresden and be inspired by novel ideas and the experiences of your colleagues (whether they half a century of experience or have just joined the industry) from over the whole world.