Emerging crossover technologies: How to organize a biotechnology that becomes mainstream?

Ruth Mampuys () and Frans Brom
Additional contact information
Ruth Mampuys: Netherlands Commission on Genetic Modification (COGEM)
Frans Brom: Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR)

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2018, vol. 38, issue 2, 163-169

Abstract: Abstract Applications and techniques in biotechnology are rapidly integrating both inside and outside the life sciences. Techniques such as CRISPR-Cas are embraced as a one-size-fits-all tool in agricultural, environmental, medical and industrial biotechnology. Biotechnology merges with other technologies in amongst others synthetic biology, bionanotechnology and 3D bioprinting. These international developments are also confronted with both regulatory and societal challenges from the perspective of emerging risks, the socially contested status of genetically modified organisms and international regulatory differences. This brings forward the question how to organize innovation, safety and societal embedding of a scientifically normalizing—and therefore no longer separately visible—technology. This article highlights the overarching issues in biotechnology developments from a societal and regulatory perspective. Furthermore, recommendations are made on how to initiate responsible governance of a biotechnology that becomes mainstream.

Keywords: Biotechnology; Emerging technologies; Synthetic biology; Regulations; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10669-017-9666-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:38:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10669-017-9666-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/10669

DOI: 10.1007/s10669-017-9666-1

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment Systems and Decisions from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().