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Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication

Emerging applications of biotechnology such as new genomic techniques may give rise to new uncertainties and uncertain risks. Particularly the increased complexity and limited knowledge of possible risks associated with these new techniques, make it currently impossible to perform an adequate enviro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bouchaut, Britte, de Vriend, Huib, Asveld, Lotte
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9552295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36237209
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.946526
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author Bouchaut, Britte
de Vriend, Huib
Asveld, Lotte
author_facet Bouchaut, Britte
de Vriend, Huib
Asveld, Lotte
author_sort Bouchaut, Britte
collection PubMed
description Emerging applications of biotechnology such as new genomic techniques may give rise to new uncertainties and uncertain risks. Particularly the increased complexity and limited knowledge of possible risks associated with these new techniques, make it currently impossible to perform an adequate environmental risk assessment. As a result, there is a risk that such techniques don’t get beyond experiments demonstrating the proof of principle, stifling their further development and implementation. To break free from this deadlock, we must be able to learn what such uncertainties and uncertain risks entail, and how they should be assessed to ensure safe further development. To shape a responsible learning environment to explore uncertainties and uncertain risks, we have organized five stakeholder workshops. By means of a case about the genetic engineering of plants’ rhizosphere–an application abundant with uncertain risks–we identified tensions between different stakeholder groups and their different estimates of uncertainties and uncertain risks. Based upon derived insights, we developed a tool–a script for researchers to organize a stakeholder workshop–that enables a constructive discussion about emerging risks with a broad range of stakeholders. Thereby, the script provides a step-by-step approach to identify uncertainties, develop anticipatory strategies and adaptations in (experimental) research designs to lower or mitigate the earlier identified uncertainties, and helps to identify knowledge gaps for which (additional) risk research should be set up.
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spelling pubmed-95522952022-10-12 Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication Bouchaut, Britte de Vriend, Huib Asveld, Lotte Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology Emerging applications of biotechnology such as new genomic techniques may give rise to new uncertainties and uncertain risks. Particularly the increased complexity and limited knowledge of possible risks associated with these new techniques, make it currently impossible to perform an adequate environmental risk assessment. As a result, there is a risk that such techniques don’t get beyond experiments demonstrating the proof of principle, stifling their further development and implementation. To break free from this deadlock, we must be able to learn what such uncertainties and uncertain risks entail, and how they should be assessed to ensure safe further development. To shape a responsible learning environment to explore uncertainties and uncertain risks, we have organized five stakeholder workshops. By means of a case about the genetic engineering of plants’ rhizosphere–an application abundant with uncertain risks–we identified tensions between different stakeholder groups and their different estimates of uncertainties and uncertain risks. Based upon derived insights, we developed a tool–a script for researchers to organize a stakeholder workshop–that enables a constructive discussion about emerging risks with a broad range of stakeholders. Thereby, the script provides a step-by-step approach to identify uncertainties, develop anticipatory strategies and adaptations in (experimental) research designs to lower or mitigate the earlier identified uncertainties, and helps to identify knowledge gaps for which (additional) risk research should be set up. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9552295/ /pubmed/36237209 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.946526 Text en Copyright © 2022 Bouchaut, de Vriend and Asveld. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Bouchaut, Britte
de Vriend, Huib
Asveld, Lotte
Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title_full Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title_fullStr Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title_short Uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: A social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
title_sort uncertainties and uncertain risks of emerging biotechnology applications: a social learning workshop for stakeholder communication
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9552295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36237209
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.946526
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