GenØk enters into a three-year agreement with Norad, total worth approximately NOK 17 millions

28.04.2005

Norad quoted the following grounds for entering into the agreement:

”Gateways/GenØk is an important partner because the network/institute has the expertise to take – and instruct in – risk assessments in connection with the use of biotechnology while at the same time they are not bound by commercial interests. Support to Gateways/GenØk is an important part of Norway’s work in following up the Cartagena Protocol (Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity – Article 22 Capacity Building).”

GenØk- The Norwegian Institute for Gene Ecology, together with its sister institute in New Zealand, established the international Gateways network. The joint aim of the Gateways institutions is to implement free and independent research and expertise building aimed at advance evaluation of risk factors in the implementation of modern gene technology. Norad writes in basis that: ”It is of prime importance that such research and expertise-building is carried out independently of industry, and that the developing countries are afforded the possibility to have risk evaluations carried out independently of the biotech industry”.

Plans for establishing and developing 4 Gateways institutes, in southern and central Africa, in China and on the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, are embedded in GenØk’s short-term plan for the period 2005-2007.

A major part of the activities under the Gateways programme are carried out in co-operation with the UN environmental organisation UNEP.