The 26th European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) annual congress was held in Lyon, France, under the chairmanship of Professor Dominique LeGuludec. The congress was attended by more than 5,200 participants, with about one-quarter coming from outside Europe. This review summarizes the major scientific contributions which were selected from the more than 1,700 submitted abstracts, and presented in the closing highlights session. They covered the diverse areas of nuclear medicine, with particular focus on oncology, cardiovascular science and neurology. Various innovations were reported regarding imaging methodology, physics, radiopharmaceuticals and chemistry. Novel radionuclide applications in both diagnosis and therapy were investigated and described, triggering strong interest from the many professionals involved. Significant progress has been demonstrated in the clinical use of existing nuclear medicine procedures, and a number of new applications are under development in preclinical and early clinical stages. The congress was a unique opportunity to get a thorough update on this research.