Biosafety course 2005 completed

07.09.2005

This year’s "Holistic Foundations for Assessment and Regulation of Genetic Engineering and Genetically Modified Organisms" included a dynamic group of 48 participants from 41 nations.

The third “edition” of the course was held at the Science Park in Tromsø, from August 22 to September 2. In the course of twelve days, GenØk played host to participants active in biosafety with professional backgrounds almost as diverse as their cultural ones.

A group of twenty consisting of GenØk employees, collaborators and external resource persons conducted the lectures. The subject matter spanned the entire specter of issues associated with GE and GMOs, from the purely scientific to the socio-political and regulatory issues – and the nexuses between them.

A participant’s post-course evaluation shows 70% describing the course as “Extremely useful” for understanding assessment and regulation of GE/GMOs, the remaining 30 % responded “Very useful”. On the follow-up question “How was it useful” one participant answered: ”Before the course, I was only aware of one aspect of it, which is GMO detection. But now I have a holistic picture of how to look at the various components that are inter-linked to help me appreciate what biosafety is all about”. Another participant replied: ”…deeper understanding of the gaps in the science, level of scientific uncertainty and omitted research in the field of biotechnology”. Final details of the evaluations will be presented shortly.