Template:Team:Groningen/CONTENT/EVENTS/Presentation and discussion with stakeholders

Presentation and discussion with stakeholders

All the iGEM teams from the Netherlands were invited by the Rathenau Institute and the RIVM, the ministry of Health and Environment, to talk about a congress about synthetic biology. At the first meeting we were allowed to give input and discuss what the best implementation of the congress would be. The RIVM and Rathenau Institute has used this feedback to organize the final event where every iGEM team from the Netherland gave a pitch about their project and the ethical side of their project. Before the final presentation there was one practice session at the Rathenau Institute. The seventh of September in The Hague the final pitch was given to an audience composed of policymakers, scientists and people from companies. The discussion after the presentations was very interesting, there were some critics but the scepticism about using bacteria as a membrane to generate electricity in the sea was low. The people were very charmed about the innovate ideas and the possibilities of synthetic biology. The biggest problem that came up was that people are scared of genetic modification. The first thing that pop into their mind are Frankenstein scenarios but we have written better future scenarios about GMOs and renewable energy. The audience reacted really positive on the scenarios and amount of thought put on ethical principles.