Increased public and educational awareness of biotechnology in
Europe will be important in the future, allowing informed choices
to be made both by the public and the scientists. To aid in this
process a European-wide network was established 25 years ago. During
the last two years a reorganisation has been conducted within European
Federation of Biotechnology, the most recent initiative has been
the establishment of Regional Branch Offices. These offices will
by instrumental in reaching all parts of Europe.
In the past two years European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB)
has carried out a process of reorganisation and renewal, a process
which previously has been described in BioZoom by the President
of EFB, Professor Børge Diderichsen. A rapid and continued expansion
of activities within EFB has resulted from this endeavour. Additionally
the number of new members, both individual and institutional, has
increased. In the past year the number of individual members has
increased by 82 % (from 1655 in April 2002 to 3090 in April 2003)
and the increase in institutional members has been 28 % (from 139
in April 2002 to 179 in April 2003).
The success of EFB has placed increasing demands on the central
EFB Office & Congress Service (OCS) at DECHEMA in Frankfurt
and on some active EFB members. To remedy the increased demand on
OCS and strengthen EFB at a regional level, the EFB Executive Board
(ExBo) decided to call for applications from those interested in
establishing Regional Branch Offices (RBO).
Strong support from the Municipality of Aarhus, the County of Aarhus
and the University of Aarhus, made it possible for BioMedico Forum
and Department of Molecular Biology at Aarhus University to apply
to EFB to host an EFB RBO.
The unique constellation involving Department of Molecular Biology
and BioMedico Forum brought together the solid scientific basis
from the University with the regional networking association BioMedico
Forum which was founded in April 2001. The primary focus of BioMedico
Forum has been on establishing and building a network between local
companies, entrepreneurs, science parks, universities, hospitals
and other educational institutions to aid the building of competence
and promotion of the region’s biotech- and BioMedico activities.
On this basis the EFB ExBo decided to place an EFB RBO in Aarhus.
In addition to the EFB Aarhus RBO, 8 RBO’s were formed with a good
coverage throughout Europe (see illustration).
The general tasks of the various RBO’s have been defined to include:
- Representation to national government and regional authorities
- Coordination of regional and selected projects
- Coordination of selected EC (and other) applications
- Various contacts (ministries, universities, organisations,
media)
- Arrange regional meetings, workshops, conferences etc
- Arrange meetings and workshops in the region for EFB Sections
and Task Groups
- Regional membership campaigns
- Distribute info about EFB and EFB events in the region
- Ensure EFB presence at relevant events in region
- Establish data base on institutions and contacts in the region
- Disseminate info about EU (and other) funding opportunities
in the region
- Facilitate EFB media contacts in the region
- Contribute to EFB “Ask the scientist” and other regionally
based contributions to Task Group on Public Perceptions of Biotechnology
- Deliver regional information and data for EFB website, data
base, OCS and ExBo.
Although the RBOs will work closely together on the various tasks
at hand, each RBO has declared interest in cooperating with defined
EFB Sections and Task Groups on a European-wide scale and each will
be responsible for a defined region.
The EFB Aarhus RBO will, in addition to serving Denmark as a region,
also be conducting activities in Sweden, since at present an EFB
RBO has not been established here.
Due to the a strong scientific position at the University within
the field of functional genomics and the general interest in innovation
both within BioMedico Forum and the University, the EFB Aarhus RBO
expressed particular interest to collaborate with the EFB Section
on Applied Functional Genomics and the EFB Task Group on Innovation.
The EFB Section on Applied Functional Genomics was founded during
the First European Symposium on Applied Functional Genome Research
in Brussels, November 26-27, 1998.
The activities of the Section include organisation of meetings,
workshops, round tables, brain-storming sessions and any other activities
to ensure that expertise in the field of Applied Genome Research
is optimised and available to support all facets of Biotechnology
in Europe (Health, Agro-food, Environment, Chemicals). The Section
Chairman is Professor Marco R. Soria from Magna Graecia University
School of Medicine, Catanzaro, Italy
The EFB Task group on Innovation was established based on the recognised
key importance of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology transfer
in capitalising on the diverse and important technological and knowledge-based
advances that have recently been witnessed in biotechnology. The
Task Group Chairman is Professor Charles F. A. Bryce from Napier
University, Edinburgh, UK.
The present list of involvements of the EFB Aarhus RBO also includes
a recent initiative within EFB, namely the European Action on Global
Life Sciences (EAGLES).
The greatest humanitarian challenges for the life sciences lie in
the problems of illness, starvation and environmental degradation
that are faced by hundreds of millions of people in many parts of
the world. These people suffer from poor health and poor nutrition
while their environment is being destroyed at an alarming rate.
The global problems of food, health and environmental protection
are intrinsically connected with each other, and life scientists
have an obvious responsibility to address them. Many biologists
believe that European life sciences could make a much greater contribution
to solving these problems. The key question is how can this be done,
and what can those who are interested in this problem do to help?
The EAGLES Consortium, organised by the European Federation of Biotechnology,
is developing new ways of helping to address these questions. The
key proposal is that Europe should listen to distinguished life
scientists from the Developing Countries. The Coordinator and Co-Vice
Chairman is Professor David McConnell, Trinity College, Dublin,
Ireland.
In the short time the EFB Aarhus RBO has been in operation the
office has been mainly responsible for one EU FP6 application in
collaboration with the EFB Task Group on Innovation. The overall
objective will be to strengthen and broaden the European competitive
advantage, realising the need for breaking down barriers and providing
a new forum for building competences; thus attacking the economic
and technological intelligence, a vital component of competitive
research and innovation strategies. This will be achieved by: (i)
Dissemination and promotion of key elements in areas such as technology
transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation, strategic management, IPR,
public communication and ethicsin the life sciences and biotechnology.
(ii) Surveying best practice in technology transfer, entrepreneurship,
innovation, strategic management, IPR, public communication and
ethics. (iii) Establishing a Training Framework to support economic
and technological intelligence. (iv) Promoting exchange of personnel
and students between SMEs and academia.
In addition the EFB Aarhus RBO is involved in an EU FP6 application
to support the initial setting up of the activities, which will
lead to the full blooming of the activities within EAGLES.
For more information on the activities of European Federation
of Biotechnology, please consult the homepage www.efbweb.org. Information
regarding BioMedico forum and Department of Molecular Biology can
be obtained from www.biomedicofourm.dk
and www.mb.au.dk. |
