Abstract
Definitive versatility of MRI fuels innovation by allowing for diverse signal manipulation and acquisition schemes. However, vendor-specific method development hinders transparency and reproducibility, limiting scientific cooperation. The lack of open-source tools for tune-up and scanner calibration procedures further exacerbates these issues. We advocate for a fully open-source MRI ecosystem, promoting the sharing of all pulse sequence and image reconstruction code, along with standardized calibration routines. Establishing such environment will foster collaboration, address reproducibility concerns, and mitigate artificial vendor boundaries. Sharing code enhances research impact but demands responsible IP handling, which requires respect and understanding from the entire MR community. The open-science transformation is crucial for advancing MRI research, but it critically depends on the broad support of the whole MR community and beyond.

Biosketch
Prof. Maxim Zaitsev graduated from the Belarusian State University in 1997 with a Diploma Degree in Physics, major Biophysics (equivalent of today’s Master of Science) and after a short detour to software industry has joined a Ph.D. program at the University of Cologne, Germany in Fall of 1999. After defending his Ph.D. thesis on method development for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 2002 he moved to the University of Freiburg, Germany, where he pursued a career from a postdoc to a senior scientist and a leader of the group MR Technologies. In 2019 he accepted a University Professor position at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, where he acted as a Co-Director of the High Field Imaging Center. Since January 2022 Prof. Zaitsev serves as a Head of the Medical Physics Division at the Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Prof. Zaitsev is a co-author of over 150 scientific papers and named as inventor on over 20 patents.