2013 – 07 – 24: Workshop “Guidance to communicate agricultural biotechnology and biosafety”

1. Introduction.

The workshop is organised in the context of the FAO REU programme “Enhanced institutional and human capacities in view of agricultural innovation in research, extension, and communication for development, including sustainable and safe use of agricultural biotechnologies in Europe and Central Asia”.

As part of that programme, the Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI) is conducting a survey on experiences with communicating agricultural biotechnology and biosafety.

The aim of the project is to strengthen the capacities of scientists, farmers and policy-makers in Europe and Central Asia to communicate issues related agricultural biotechnology and biosafety.

The targeted outcome of the project is a practical guide, based on lessons learnt from case studies on examples of communication approaches.

In the period January – April 2013, over 60 scientists, farmers and policymakers in countries in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe were approached.

The feedback from that survey was:

  • Without exception, good communication is regarded as essential in this field.
  • There is no “one size fits all” or “best” communication approach, but there are many different ways of communication, depending on the audience and the message.
  • There is great willingness to participate in this project, and about 20 communication initiatives were suggested as possible case studies.

The results of the case studies are currently being processed and the draft report will be available late June.

 

2. The workshop on 24 – 25 July 2013.

The main aim of the workshop is to exchange experiences with farmers, scientists and policymakers on science communication in general and on the draft guidance in particular, with a view to validating the guidance.

The meeting will start on 24 July at 13.00, and end at 12.00 on 25 July 2013, allowing most people to fly in on 24 July and to fly out on 25 July.  More information will be made available on: https://prri.net/meetings-organised-by-prri/.

Interested stakeholders are welcome to participate in this workshop. Given the limited number of available places, registrations will be accepted on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Expressions of interest can be sent to: Pieter.vandermeer@ugent.be and nevena.alexandrova@fao.org