Team:Utrecht/Public Engagement
As a team of students from the biological sciences, the value and opportunities offered by synthetic biology were clear to us. So, to demonstrate not only the importance of our own project but also create awareness of this exciting field of science, our team reached out to the general public. We organized and attended events where laymen and experts in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical waste met, and were featured in traditional media and trade publications. On this page, you will find an overview of these public engagements.
On Tuesday 22nd May 2018, the Netherlands Biotechnology Association (NBV) organised the Netherlands Biotechnology Congress themed Biotechnology in Harmony. We pitched our iGEM project and discussed technical, ethical and social subjects around our project.
iGEM Biotechnology ConferenceIn collaboration with iGEM team Aachen, we organised the iGEM Biotechnology Conference on 20th September 2018 for students, scientists and companies. Our main goal was to educate the visitors about biotechnological innovations and how it impacts society. Furthermore, we wanted to introduce the iGEM competition in general and both of our projects. At the end of the day, attendees had the possibility to meet each other and make valuable connections. See More
RIVM Network Day ‘Medicine Residues in the Environment’The RIVM Network Day is organised for everyone who is involved with medicine residues in the environment. Current events are discussed in order to gain new insights regarding the issue. We were present to contribute to the discussion, follow workshops and implement relevant information from this day into our project.
Weekend of ScienceThe ‘Weekend van de Wetenschap’ (Weekend of Science) is an annual national event in The Netherlands for science and technology. During this event, several companies, research institutes, universities and musea open their doors to present their work. As part of this event, we, iGEM Team Utrecht 2018, got the chance to show our project to all interested parties. For this we invented a short game in which children aged from 8-12 years old and their families can experience how it is to perform experiments in a laboratory setting. Furthermore, we taught the children what bacteria are, what they like to eat, and how they grow in a petri dish.
We wrote or contributed to articles for multiple journals and newspapers in order to inform people and create awareness around biotechnology, the iGEM competition and our project.
Our team reached out to NRC, a Dutch newspaper, to write about the iGEM competition and the Dutch iGEM teams. On 19th September, we invited the NRC and other Dutch iGEM teams from Eindhoven, Leiden and Groningen to Utrecht. We shared our stories about our team, project and progress and finished with a discussion about biosynthesis and genetically engineering in general. With this article, we hope to create awareness around biosynthesis, additional ethical issues and the iGEM competition.
We wrote an introduction about our project for the NBV, the Dutch Biotechnology Association. Here, we explained the social relevance, described the pathways of our system and gave examples for the application of our project.
Bionieuws, a Dutch biweekly journal for biologists, wrote a short overview about all the attending Dutch iGEM teams, including iGEM team Utrecht.
Biotechnologie.nl aims to give an overview of innovations in biotechnology for a wide audience. During this interview, we talked about the challenging and fun part of synthetic biology as well as the upcoming Giant Jamboree. Our interview is coming up very soon, so keep an eye on their website!
