The European Biotechnology and Society Online Seminar Series is a part of the ERA CoBioTech additional activities programme. It runs from 30 September through until 4 November, every Wednesday afternoon from 14:00 – 15:00 CET. Regular readers will know several of the speakers and many of the topics.

The series is dedicated to exploring the social, environmental, political and ethical dimensions of biotechnology in Europe. The seminar series forms part of ERA CoBioTech’s work on Responsible Research and Innovation, and biotechnology capacity building. Each seminar will bring two speakers into conversation, offering their perspectives on new approaches, methods, and (good and bad!) experiences developed to better-understand the place of biological science in the world today.

With speakers from within and beyond ERA CoBioTech, the sessions will address topics covering the environmental, social and economic sustainability of biotechnologies; interdisciplinarity methodologies for collaboration across the social and natural sciences; the relationships between science and citizens; the consequences for funders and large research centres; as well as practical lessons from researchers at the interface of science, technology and society:

• Session 1: 30 September, 14:00 – 15:00 CEST
• Session 2: 7 October, 14:00 – 15:00 CEST
• Session 3: 14 October, 14:00 – 15:00 CEST
• Session 4: 21 October, 14:00 – 15:00 CEST
• Session 5: 28 October, 14:00 – 15:00 CET
• Session 6: 4 November, 14:00 – 15:00 CET

The series also includes a virtual tavern event!

Participation is free of charge but requires registration here.

The event will take place on zoom. A link to join will be sent together with confirmation of registration.

Speakers and provisional topics

Wednesday 30th September
• Diverse routes to dissemination and engagement in MeMBrane. – Alan Goddard (Aston University)
• Breaking the impasse: Towards a forward‐looking governance framework for gene editing with plants. – Phil Macnaghten (Wageningen University) and Michelle Habets (Rathenau Instituut)

Wednesday 7th October
• Provenance Assessment as a method for integrating RRI into the research process. – Alfred Nordmann and Janine Gondolf (TU Darmstadt)
• Responsible innovation and transformative innovation policy as frameworks for research funding policy – Cecilie Mathiesen, Øystein Rønning and Helge Rynning (Norwegian Research Council)

Wednesday 14th October
• RRI in CoBioTech: Challenges and opportunities of using Lego Serious Play. – Eleanor Hadley Kershaw (University of Nottingham), Stevienna de Saille (University of Sheffield) and Carmen McLeod (University of Newcastle)
• Title To Be Confirmed. – Ruth Müller (TU Munich)

Wednesday 21st October
• Sustainable Co-Production: stakeholders and knowledgeholders. – Ursula Weisenfeld, Cristina Blohm and Antoniya Hauerwaas (Leuphana University of Lüneberg)
• Responsible innovation in the Centre for Digital Life, Norway. – Trygve Brautaset (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Wednesday 28th October
• An ethnographic approach to assess the social impact of a biotechnological intervention in wine: methodological considerations and a pint of results from CoolWine. – Mabel Gracia Arnaiz, Veronica Anzil and Lina Marín (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
• Opening up plant synthetic biology. – Jim Haseloff (University of Cambridge)

Wednesday 4th November
• Implementing RRI: integrating life cycle analysis & stakeholder engagement. – Eva Sevigné-Itoiz, Lorenzo Di Lucia, Onesmus Mwabonje and Jeremy Woods (Imperial College London)
• Title To Be Confirmed. – Lotte Asveld (TU Delft)
• Discussant – Michael Bernstein (Arizona State University)

For more information, contact the organizing team at rri-cobiotech(at)fnr.de

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