Following the success of the 2020 edition (reviewed here), ERA CoBioTech invites you to the European Biotechnology and Society Online Seminar Series 2021. This second online seminar series continues the ERA CoBioTech additional activities programme, organized in the framework of the European BioTech Hub by FNR in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Durham University.

The series, consisting of five seminars, will again focus on the social, environmental, political and ethical dimensions of biotechnology in Europe and will run weekly on Wednesdays from 9 June to 7 July 2021 at 14:00 – 15:00 (CEST).

Each seminar will bring two speakers into dialogue, offering their perspectives on new approaches, methods, and analyses that help us understand the place of biological science in the world today.

With speakers from within and beyond ERA CoBioTech, the sessions will address the following topics:
– Responsible research & innovation;
– Environmental, social and economic sustainability of biotechnologies;
– Interdisciplinarity methodologies for collaboration across the social and natural sciences;
– Communicating the social responsibility of science;
– Science policy activities of research funders;
– Practical lessons about responsible research & innovation from researchers at the interface of science, technology and society.

Full Program

Weds 9th June
Introducing the seminar series: A space beyond the project
Robert Smith, Thoko Kamwendo and Boris Vashev
University of Edinburgh, Durham University & Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR)

Communicating the social responsibility of science
Maja Horst
Responsible Technology Section, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Assessing sustainability: Challenges of including multi criteria results in decision making
Matthias Stratmann
Nova-Institut GmbH

Weds 16th June
Responsible Innovation in the Dutch Research Council
Lieke Nijland & Rob Heinsbroek
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek / Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Research evaluation in the Anthropocene
Thomas Fransen
Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University

Weds 23rd June
HotSolute: Sustainability from the view of the chemical industry
Felix Müller
Evonik Operations GmbH

Acting responsibly through openness? Reflections on open science
Ana Maria Delgado Aleman
TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo

Weds 30th June
Environmental ethics by committee
Tess Doezema
Munich Centre for Technology in Society, TU Munich

Can science be more like music?
Tom McLeish
University of York

Weds 7th July
Special session: Responsible innovation as social learning in ERA CoBioTech
Eleanor Hadley Kershaw
University of Nottingham
Joanne Benton & Jose Jimenez Zarco
Imperial College London
Robert Smith
University of Edinburgh
Thoko Kamwendo
Durham University

The series will be held via Zoom, registration is free here.

Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Hankins will participate and review the series for the website.

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