The Gateways Partners Symposia on Biosafety
I. Hazard ID and Risk Assessment of (Trans)gene Flow

23-26 August 2009
Tromsø, Norway

GenØk – Centre for Biosafety will host the first of a series of international conferences on biosafety. This series is brought to you by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the consortium of institutions under the Gateways Partners*. Key issues in the assessment of the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for human health and environment will serve as the theme for each conference in the year that it is held.

The use of “modern biotechnology” techniques to create viral, microbial, fungal, plant and animal GMOs, and the rapid commercialization of them, may have benefits and the substantial possibility of causing harm. Both the GMOs and their transgenes may - and have - spread outside of their approved locations, introducing profound complications for predicting impacts from their use and continued releases. Future MOs may have transgenes of any description, based on genes known to be hazardous to human health or the environment, or synthetic with no basis other than the human imagination.

This conference will explore the frontiers of social, biological, economic, legal and cultural implications of the movement of transgenes. The conference will feature exciting research on evaluating the risks to human health and the environment from transgene flow, the legal and socioeconomic impacts of transgene flow in agriculture, and perspectives on GMOs from researchers, regulators, civil society and farmers on how agriculture and society are changing because of transgene flow. The conference will be forward looking, presenting the research that needs to be done for societies to make informed decisions on biotechnology, and for cooperating nations to chart a path to sustaining a global society rich in food and cultural choices, with abundant access to high standard medical technologies, and reduced poverty.

Topics for the conference include (trans)gene flow and:

• Biodiversity and Agrodiversity
• Co-existence (including monitoring)
• GURTs
• Risk Assessment
• Vaccines, Vectors, Microbes

There will be feature presentations on two evenings that will be open to the public.

*The Gateways Partnership includes many diverse institutions worldwide that cooperate on research and outreach on biosafety. The Partners include GenØk – Centre for Biosafety, Third World Network (Malaysia), Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, University of Canterbury (New Zealand), the National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR) (Zambia) and Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences of SEPA (China).