About Us

1.      Commission Members will want to have an outline of current plans for the two forthcoming full AEBC meetings for information, and to discuss these plans.

 7- 8 May in Manchester

2.      The meeting on 7-8 May will be held in Manchester.  The provisional programme is for the meeting to start at 12 noon on 7 May with lunch, in central Manchester at UMIST, the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. 

3.      The afternoon AEBC discussion will be open to the public to observe.  The agenda will include discussion, aiming for Members’ agreement to sign off both the consumer choice and liability Commission reports.  In the early evening we aim to arrange a public lecture, with a theme of agricultural biotechnology overseas, particularly in the developing world.  Gordon Conway, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and Richard Sandbrook have been invited to give talks.  We would bill this as a GM public debate event. 

4.      The meeting on 8 May will be a reflective day’s discussion, as part of the first AEBC meeting for the newly appointed Members.  Aspects to discuss include what the Commission has achieved to date, lessons learned, and how best to take work forward in the future.  The meeting would close at around 4pm.   

9-10 July in London

5.      The meeting on 9 -10 July will be in London.  The proposal is to organise a day’s horizon scanning conference, plus a half day for discussion of AEBC business. 

6.      The idea of the conference would be to invite expert witnesses to give an overview of recent developments, followed by questions from Commission members.  The atmosphere would be a symposium rather than a select committee, with proceedings published, perhaps as part of the Annual Report.  The meeting would be publicised as an important public conference, where the audience as well as the Commission can be brought up to date quickly on recent developments.  The aim would be to give time also for the audience to ask questions. 

7.      A possible programme might be:

• Introduction and overview of AEBC work and future work programme.

• New social science developments, which could include discussion of emerging themes in the GM debate, and be augmented by other relevant social science research.   

• New food crop developments, with an overview from the industry: perhaps ISAAA for international dimensions, and UK industry.  

• New non-food crop developments, with an overview from eg NFU non-food crops committee; Institute of Forest Biotechnology.

•  New biosafety developments, with an overview from key academic institutes, perhaps as a panel, and an overview of what products are currently in the regulatory process, what might be coming soon, and significant biosafety research from UK and around the world, perhaps including ACRE.

• Next steps: implications for AEBC work, recommendations for others’ work.     

24-25 September and 10-11 December

8.      To confirm the dates and venues for the remaining 2003 meetings.  These are 24-25 September in Northern Ireland, and 10-11 December in London. 

AEBC Secretariat

February 2003