Engagement in advanced biotechnology

Author: Roger Hellens – Queensland University of Technology, New Zealand

Co-authors:
Dimitri Perrin – Queensland University of Technology
Wendy Russell – Double Arrow Consulting
Robert Speight – Queensland University of Technology

Advanced biotechnologies such as genome editing for the production of new foods, fuels and chemicals are likely to have significant social, environmental and economic implications across a range of sectors. Along with the rest of the world, Queensland researchers are using advanced biotechnology to develop innovative solutions to a variety of problems and opportunities. Given the disruptive potential of these new tools, there is a need to engage the broader community (lawmakers, media, general public) in decisions about the future directions of these scientific developments.

This project (funded by Advance Queensland) provides researcher training and opportunities for this critical engagement around advanced biotechnologies.

First, through a workshop, we developed the purpose for our approach: “Engage people in genome editing and inspire them to contribute ideas on how it may or may not be used.”

We then explored a number of engagement strategies before settling on informal ‘vox pop’ survey. During National Science Week (12-20 August 2017) we collected over 80 video interviews of responses to the question: “What would *you* change using genome editing?”.

We will present a collation of these interviews and show how we have used these to extend the conversation in rural Queensland and on Social media.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Applying science communication research to practice