The Cologne Consensus Conference focuses on the new guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) on pulmonary hypertension and their practical implementation in the German-speaking region. In Austria, the results of this conference are also of great importance. Thus, the researchers of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Lung Vascular Research were strongly represented at this meeting. Prof. Horst Olschewski is one of the six scientific organisers of the event. This year, the members of our institute collaborated in the task forces „Pathobiology, pathology and genetics“ (chair A. Olschewski, members G. Kwapiszewska and E. Stacher-Priehse), „Classification of PH and initial diagnostics“ (chair G. Kovacs) and „Pulmonary hypertension in lung diseases“ (chair H. Olschewski, member P. Douschan).