The Fifth Annual Conference on Governance of Emerging Technologies:Law, Policy and Ethics will be held at the new Beus Center for Law & Society in Phoenix, AZ between May 17-19, 2017, with Foundation Foreign Correspondent jonny Hankins in attendance to report on proceedings.

The conference consists of both plenary and session presentations and discussions on regulatory governance, legal, policy, and social and ethical aspects of emerging technologies. Topics covered include nanotechnology and gene editing, biotechnology, personalized medicine, geoengineering and robotics, all topics of interest to the Foundation and that have been addressed through various formats on the website.

The conference hosts a series of plenary sessions, one of which will be of particular interest to our readership: Innovation – Responsible and/or Permissionless is hosted by Ellen-Marie Forsberg, Senior Researcher/Research Manager at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Virtual Institute of Responsible Innovation (VIRI) member and also member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Responsible Innovation.

As readers will know, the Foundation is participating in a Horizon 2020 funded project SMART-Maps, and Sally Randles, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University and partner in the project will present Transnational Co-ordination, Formative Evaluation, and Participant Tracking across Six Countries and Three Emergent Medical Technologies : Project Design, Methodology, and Preliminary Results from the Evaluation of the H2020 SMART-Maps Project on Responsible Innovation during the International Governance session.

Another familiair name in the program is that of Andrew Maynard, Senior Sustainability Scholar and a work colleague of VIRI Director and recent Foundation visitor David Guston.

Various other members of the VIRI and well known figures in the broader RI community are also speaking. Hannot Rodriguez, Department of Philosophy, University of the Basque Country and Erik Thorstensen, University of College of Applied Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University will present during the dedicated RRI session, Clare Shelley-Egan, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, in the New Perspectives on Precaution session, and Jack Stilgoe, University College London, in the Driverless Cars session.

The conference also includes a Cybersecurity half day event, and plenary sessions on risk and big data amongst others.

Erik Fisher, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Responsible Innovation is a member of the Conference Committee, and sponsors include the VIRI, the Hastings Center and the Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society, all long time collaborators with the Bassetti Foundation.

Registration is currently open, and extremely reasonable, with a subsidy offered for students and some alumni, and we would urge readers who have the possibility of attending to consider it. The full program is available here.

The conference will be preceeded by the annual VIRI meeting, this year hosted by Arizona State university School for the Fututre of Innovation in Society, of which VIRI Founder David Guston is Director. This closed event is an opportunity to further bring members from across the globe together to aid collaborations, present their work and interests, and build upon the VIRI’s current knowledge and resource base. Hankins represents the Foundation within the Institute and will present events and developments within the Foundation alongside his current research project into poiesis intensive responsible innovation.

Reports on both events will follow.

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