Towards a sustainable bio-based society: aligning scientific, cultural and societal agendas for bio-innovation society
Organised by CSC, EGN (ESRC Genomics Network) and GEN-AU, with the support of ESF and the contribution of project VALGEN
6-7 December 2012
Scope
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The transformation towards a sustainable bio-based society is one of the big challenges of our era. It has been called a “second” industrial revolution and a “greening” of industry, entailing a plethora of promises as well as concerns. Regions and nations are facing important opportunities, but also potential items of conflict. There is a general awareness that a solid societal embedding is of key importance, so as to forego the biotech debacle of the 1990s. Both scientific and societal agendas are redefined in the light of these challenges and prospects, closely related to emerging bio-based economies and industries, aiming to develop more sustainable forms of energy, food, and bio-based renewable materials. A successful transformation calls for a close alignment of research, policy and industrial agendas.
The conference series brings together key experts from academia, industry and policy, from the life sciences, the social sciences and the humanities, to deliberate a common agenda for research. The December 2012 conference is an inaugural event, meant as a kick-off for the ESF Conference Series devoted to this topic.
| Thursday 6 December | |
| 9:00-10:00 | Registration, coffee & tea |
| 10:00-10:30 | Opening: Hub Zwart (Chair) |
| 10:30-11:10 | David Castle, University of Edinburgh, UK The future of open innovation and the institutions it demands |
11:10- 11:50 | Ward Mosmuller, DSM, Director Corporate Public Affairs The transition to bio-based production: the fossil era as an intermezzo |
| 11:50-12:30 | Statements session : Janus Hansen and Pieter Lemmens, both 10 minutes, 10 minutes discussion per statement |
| 12:30-13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30-14:10 | George Gaskell, London School of Economics, UK Science publics in 2022 |
| 14:10-14:50 | Merja Penttilä, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland Biotechnology as an enabler for sustainable bio-economy |
| 14:50-15:30 | Patricia Osseweijer, Delft University of Technology, NL Global Challenges in responsible innovation for a bio-based economy |
| 15:30-16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00-16:40 | Luuk van der Wielen, BE-BASIC Biobased Economy Beyond Bioethanol |
| 16:40-17:15 | Statements Session: Eric Welch and A. Wieke Betten, both 10 minutes, 10 minutes discussion per statement |
| 17:15-17:45 | Concluding remarks by the chair |
| 17:45-18:45 | Posters session and drink |
| 19:00 | Conference Dinner |
| Friday 7 December | |
| 8:00 | Registration - coffee and tea |
| 9:00-9:40 | Jan van Hest, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL Biomaterials: prospects for sustainability |
| 9:40-10:20 | Emma Frow, University of Edinburgh, UK Sustainability and innovative practices in synthetic biology |
| 10:15-10:45 | Statements by Menno Van der Veen and Neil The micro-society: a new tool for public debates |
| 10:45-11:15 | Coffee Break |
| 11:15-11:50 | Christine Hauskeller, University of Exeter, UK The effects of differences in national regulation on life science innovation |
| 11:50-12:25 | Ruth Chadwick, Cardiff University, UK Emerging Biotechnologies: new challenges for bioethics |
| 12:25-12:50 | Fine-tunning the agenda for the series |
| 12:50-13:00 | Hub Zwart, Concluding remarks |
| 13:00-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-14:30 | Departure |
Partnership
This is an inaugural event, meant as a kick-off for the ESF Conference Series devoted to this topic. It is organised by Centre for Society and the Life Sciences (CSG, NL), ESRC Genomics Network (EGN, UK) and GEN-AU (A), with the support of the European Science Foundation (ESF)
