Team:TU-Delft/Human-Practice/Rathenau

The first of September we hosted the “Meeting of young minds” kick-off, the Preparation of Minds for the Jamboree event Friday, Sept. 30. This day was organized in collaboration with initiator the Rathenau Instituut. This institute stimulates the research and debate on science and technology. All day long the political youth parties and all Dutch iGEM teams listened to talks about the future of synthetic biology and bio ethics. There was also be a short discussion on different views towards these still developing standards. The speakers were most Dutch iGEM teams (Amsterdam, Wageningen, Delft), TU Delft professor Luuk van der Wielen (BE Basic), Politician Chantal Gillard, Wageningen University Professor Henk van der Belt and COGEM’s bio-safety specialist Huib de Vriend.

It was a very succesful evening with lively discussions amongst scientists and politicians A short video compilation was made to give an illustration of the evening. The 30th of September the Rathenau Instituut will organise the “Meeting of young Minds” day in collaboration with the European iGEM Committee 2011. As a warm-up for the jamboree iGEM participants can debate with young Dutch politicians on the future of synthetic biology based on techno-moral vignettes developed by the Rathenau Instituut in cooperation with Tsjalling Swierstra and Marianne Boenink. The Rathenau Instituut supports the political youth organizations with opportunities and information to prepare for the debate. The programme we used can be found below.