Call for Papers: Session “Fostering agricultural biotechnology in line with RRI principles” at 17th Annual STS Conference Graz 2018 (07.–08.05.2018, Graz)

You are invited to submit paper proposals for the session “Fostering agricultural biotechnology in line with RRI principles” at the 17th Annual STS Conference Graz 2018 which will be held from 7th to 8th May 2018 in Graz, Austria.

Despite the efforts of the European Union to harness the full economic potential of biotechnology, the development of a bioeconomy strategy has – so far – not led to significant progress in agricultural biotechnology. Recent developments in synthetic biology and genome editing have triggered new hopes in certain stakeholder groups that the long-standing promises could be finally fulfilled. Yet the directions to be taken for innovation, commercial application and risk regulation appear to deeply divide stakeholders. These challenges seem to acquire another dimension with the European Union decision to pursuit the strategy of responsible research and innovation. Against this backdrop the main question for this panel is if and how RRI could help to proceed with agricultural biotech applications. Contributions on both concepts and examples of implementing RRI in agricultural biotech research and innovation practice are particularly invited.

The deadline for submissions is January 19, 2018.

For more information, check the full list of sessions of the track “Life Scienes and Biotechnology”.