"

From 2010.igem.org

Rathenau Institute

What is the Rathenau Institute?

The Rathenau Institute is an organization, funded by the government, which investigates the dynamics of science and technology. It maps the significance of these developments for individuals and society. The institute also investigates the science system, and how it responds to scientific, societal and economic developments.

Partnership

Besides designing and developing the Alkanivore, iGEM sees it as a duty towards society to inform them about this new branch of science. Together with the Rathenau Institute, iGEM started looking for an interactive way to achieve this. A workshop was established to not only inspire and inform the audience, but we also involve them in discussions about synthetic biology.

This combination of educating and obtaining perceptions was proved to be a golden formula. With this workshop we also laid the foundations for a succesful cooperation for the coming years.

Continue reading:

• Workshop

Dr. Dirk Stemerding

For this partnership we especially want to mention Dr. Dirk Stemerding who was responsible for the second part of the workshop.

Dr. Dirk Stemerding became a senior research with the Rathenau Institute's Technology Assessment division in October 2008. He is primarily concerned with developments in biotechnology, genomics and synthetic biology.

Dirk Stemerding has a special interest in the risks and societal implications of synthetic biology, an area in which the Rathenau Institute works closely alongside the Netherlands Commission on Genetic Modification (COGEM).