Objective
This proposal aims to uncover the moral and practical dimensions of concern that contribute to differing public attitudes towards current biotechnological applications across the European Union.
The last twenty years have seen rapid developments in modern biotechnology. In a relatively short time span basic research has led to a range of applications in a variety of areas including medical diagnostics and treatment, agriculture and food and environmental remediation. With these developments modern biotechnology has reached a new phase of relative maturity. This phase is characterised by a shift in the focus of regulatory attention, media coverage and public concern, away from the novel research techniques involving recombinant DNA (captured in the phrase "gene technology") and towards the assessment of particular products and services.
The recent 1996 Eurobarometer Survey on biotechnology suggests that public perceptions of modern biotechnology are increasingly differentiated with respect to areas of application. The survey clearly indicates that levels of public support are contingent upon the nature of the application under consideration: in general, medical and pharmaceutical applications are strongly supported, agricultural applications receive a mixed response, and transgenic animal applications receive are widely opposed. Underlying these different levels of support for particular appplications are judgements about the relative" usefulness" of these applications to society and the extent to which these applications are judged to be "morally acceptable". Surprisingly, the 1996 Eurobarometer results suggest that considerations of risk and safety do not influence levels of public support. Another key finding from the 1996 survey is the general lack of trust in the institutions responsible for regulating modern biotechnology in Europe.
These findings from the Eurobarometer survey find echoes in the concerns of those responsible for the successful development of a European biotechnology industry. There is increasing concerned amongst policy-makers themselves about the ethical issues raised by new biotechnological products and services, and about the role of transparency in securing public confidence and trust in the regulatory process.
We wish to conduct collaborative research designed to explore the moral and practical dimensions of public concern with respect to current applications of modern biotechnology. The proposal is for a set of inter-related research activities which will be funded nationally, but developed and coordinated through a Concerted Action. This Concerted Action is designed to build upon the expertise which has developed among the research partners participating in a previous project, and which includes invaluable background information in the form of systematic time series data on the development of public policy and media coverage from 1973 to 1996. The partners now possess a considerable expertise in the conduct of such research, and are widely recognised as a serious network of active European researchers investigating public perceptions of biotechnology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences political sciences political policies public policies
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
SW7 2DD London
United Kingdom
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