Programme
Final programme information and links to Speakers' PowerPoint presentations and Blogs
We will continue to update with speaker presentations through January 2011.
| Day One: Monday 6 December 2010 |
|---|
|
Welcome and Conference Introduction Speakers: Dr Gerardo Jiménez-Sánchez, Chair, Working Party on Biotechnology, OECD, Mexico Dominic Martin, UK Ambassador to the OECD, France Professor Steve Yearley, Director, ESRC Genomics Forum, University of Edinburgh, UK |
|
Plenary 1 - Knowledge Networks and Markets Chair: Iain Gillespie, Head of Science & Technology, Policy Division, OECD, France Speakers: Dr Koray Çalişkan: Department of Political Science and International Bogaziçi University, Turkey Respondent: This session will consider how knowledge in the life sciences is valued, owned, shared and distributed. How do emerging knowledge networks relate to current opportunities for financing life science innovation, regionally and in developing countries? |
|
Plenary 2 - Biodigital Futures Informatisation and Convergence in the Life Sciences Chair and Respondent: Professor David Castle, Chair of Innovation in the Life Sciences, Innogen, University of Edinburgh, UK Speakers: Jennifer Leib, Founding Partner, HealthFutures LLC, USA Dennis J. Van Liew, Site Lead and Senior Director, Strategic Management Group, Pfizer, USA This session will consider innovation trends in the new life sciences and in ICTs (information and communications technologies). Are these technologies converging and in what ways are genomic data becoming globalised? What do current trends mean for privacy, security and environmental concerns? |
|
Session 1A: Knowledge Networks and Markets How Does Life-Sciences Knowledge Circulate? Chair: Professor Steve Hughes, Co-director, Egenis, University of Exeter, UK Speakers: Professor Michiel Korthals, Chair of Applied Philosophy, Wageningen University, Netherlands Dr Jane Calvert, Innogen RCUK Academic Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK This session will consider the ways in which biological knowledge embodied in both processes and material objects is produced, negotiated and shared in a diverse set of scenarios — from farmer seed systems to global institutional accords and cutting-edge science. |
|
Session 1B: Biodigital Futures Making Out the Promise of Synthetic Biology Chair: Dr Emma Frow, Research Fellow, ESRC Genomics Forum, University of Edinburgh, UK Speakers: Marie-Ange Baucher, Policy Analyst, OECD, France Respondent: Professor Steve Yearley, Director, ESRC Genomics Forum, University of Edinburgh, UK One key aspect of visions of a biodigital future concerns the ability to engineer biology: to synthesise novel living entities and to get biological products to do new jobs for us in smarter ways. This session asks how plausible these visions are, and examines the kinds of regulatory concerns that would accompany moves to take such products to market and to put them to widespread use. |
|
Session 2A: Knowledge Networks and Markets The Role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in New Agriculture and Health Technologies Chair: Dr Rebecca Hanlin, Innogen Co-Investigator, The Open University, UK Speakers: Professor Joanna Chataway, Innogen Co-Director, The Open University, UK Dr Mwananyanda Lewanika, Chief Operating Office, STEM Education Centre & President Zambia Academy of Science, Zambia This session will consider the opportunity created by public-private partnerships (PPPs) to provide better availability and access to health and agriculture technologies much needed by many of the poorest in the world. It will discuss issues such as: What lessons can we learn from the experiences so far of PPPs; Can the private sector bring unique skills and capabilities to promote the creation of, and access to, health and agriculture ‘neglected’ technologies; Are PPPs the best means to engage the private sector in the production and delivery of new agriculture and health technologies; How do PPPs best create the environment and opportunities to promote the creation of, and access to, these technologies; What are the wider implications of PPPs’ activities not only for creation of, and access to, new technologies but also on research, manufacturing and delivery systems more generally. |
| Session 2B: Biodigital Futures
Putting Biology to Work: From Knowing to Designing in Synthetic Biology Chair: Professor Hub Zwart, Scientific Director, Centre for Society and Genomics, Netherlands Speakers: Dr Maureen O'Malley, Egenis Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK Dr Berthold Rutz, Examiner Biotechnology, European Patent Office, Germany Synthetic biology promises to bring engineering design principles to bear on living things. But in order to deliver on that promise, it must develop design processes that work scientifically, practically, and commercially and shift biological work from knowing to designing. This session will consider the scientific challenges of design, the philosophical problems of this shift, and the dynamic change in patterns of patents and scientific publication that accompany it. |
| Day Two: Tuesday 7 December 2010 |
|---|
|
Session 3A Converging Technologies: Promises, Programmes, and Practices Chair: Professor Robin Williams, Co-Director Innogen & Director of the Institute for Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI), University of Edinburgh, UK Speakers: Dr William Cannell, Advisor, Directorate-General For Research, European Commission, Belgium Dr Robert Doubleday, Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK Respondent: Convergence suggests a coming together of diverse technologies such as biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology with profound transformative consequences for every sector of the economy. But how do these generic promises get translated into research and development programmes, and in turn into actual practices in the laboratory? This session will consider the transition from promise to programme to practice. What are the sources of the rhetorics of convergence? How do agencies (like the European Commission) shape these discourses into research programmes and templates for innovation? How are these programmes then translated into practices by scientists and engineers? Is there real convergence? Or do scientists simply align their work with the categories and buzzwords of funding programmes? |
|
Session 3B Personalised Medicine: Avoiding New Inequities Chair: Dr Steve Sturdy, Deputy Director, ESRC Genomics Forum, University of Edinburgh, UK Speakers: Professor Beatrice Seguin, Pillar Leader at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health & Assistant Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Canada Professor Klasien Horstman, Chair, Philosophy of Public Health, Maastricht University, Netherlands Respondent: This workshop will consider a number of inequities that, if not explicitly addressed in policy, could potentially be exacerbated by the growth of genomic medicine: between different genetic (including "racial") sub-groups; between those with different access to insurance; and, importantly, between developing and developed countries. |
|
Session 4A Personalised Medicine: Debating the Promise of Psychiatric Genomics Chair: Professor Adam Hedgecoe, Associate Director, Cesagen, University of Cardiff, UK Speakers: Dr Michael Arribas-Ayllon, Research Fellow, Cesagen, University of Cardiff, UK Dr Maria Arranz, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK Discussant: This workshop will consider whether the promise of ‘personalised medicine’ can deliver a viable pathway for improving mental health care. Several views of personalisation will be discussed: recent developments in psychiatric genetics and pharmacogenetics, direct-to-consumer marketing of risk information, and the relationship between biological complexity and translational medicine. |
|
Session 4B Green Growth and Life Science Innovation for Sustainability Chair: Dr Richard Twine, Senior Research Associate, Cesagen, University of Lancaster, UK Speakers: Dr Emma Frow, Research Fellow, ESRC Genomics Forum, University of Edinburgh, UK Professor Stephen Hughes, Co-Director, Egenis, University of Exeter, UK This workshop will consider ways in which research into biological systems may create 'green growth', discussing: the social, environmental and economic implications of how we produce and consume livestock animals; the implications of a growing bio-economy and the new 'politics' of plants; and the contemporary trajectory for plant breeding and access to genetic variation against the concepts of property rights, farmers rights and technological change. |
|
Session 5A Food Security and Sustainable Diets Chair: Professor Stephen Hughes, Co-Director, Egenis, University of Exeter, UK Speakers: Dr Benard Muok, Project Manager, Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES) Project, African Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya This workshop will discuss the development of Plants for A Future, a pan-European technology platform involving industry and public sectors in prioritising plant/agronomic research against visions of a sustainable future. This is an example of biotechnology in the frame of problems and solutions as well as social consultation and empowerment. The workshop will also cover biofuels in the context of governance (both bottom up and top down), including research for development versus the demands of visions of sustainability. |
|
Session 5B Governance and Public Engagement in a Global Perspective Chair: Yuko Harayama, Deputy Director, Science, Technology & Industry, OECD, France Speakers: Dr Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner, Reader in Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK Respondent: In the last decade and a half, the idea of public engagement and deliberation around life-sciences issues has taken root and become an established part of science and technology governance in most OECD member countries. This session will consider two questions. Are we really clear how public engagement should work and what it should achieve? And, how does public engagement with the life sciences look in a global perspective? |
|
Conference Closing Debate How to Deliver the Promise: Where to Next? Chair: Iain Gillespie, Head of Science and Technology, Policy Division, OECD, France Speakers: Professor John Dupré, Director, Egenis, University of Exeter, UK Professor Joyce Tait, Scientific Advisor, Innogen, University of Edinburgh, UK Richard Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Global Helix LLC, USAThis final session will be an interactive ‘town hall’ discussion which will allow delegates to ask questions of the panel members. It will be an opportunity to look at all the previous conference sessions and debate the important question: ‘what happens next?’, allowing delegates to contemplate the future of biotechnology in relation to the life sciences. |
