Policy & governance of innovative technologies

As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, the Innogen Institute brought together social science researchers and scientists from the Roslin Institute and the Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology (SynthSys) at the University of Edinburgh for a free public event exploring the opportunities arising from the latest genetic technologies and the regulatory issues they are facing.

Innogen’s co-Director has been appointed as a member of the UK Government’s new Regulatory Horizons Council, an independent expert committee set up to provide impartial, expert advice on the regulatory reform required to support the rapid and safe introduction of new technologies.

On the 24th May over 30 Innogen members from the Open University and the University of Edinburgh participated in the Institute’s virtual meeting. Following the keynote presentation by Prof. Smita Srinivas on ‘The What, When, How of Policy for Technological Capabilities’, various PIs and PhD students gave short presentations on their work and future plans. Over the course of the day, they were able to exchange ideas and identify new opportunities for collaboration and funding.

Innogen researchers are delivering a new postgraduate course at the University of Edinburgh on policy-led science for decision-making.

On the 20th of June representatives from the aquaculture sector, academia, environmental and governmental organisations took part in a virtual round table discussion co-hosted by SAIC and Innogen on how best to implement innovations that will improve the sustainability of aquaculture.