2017 Biotechnology Regulation Immersion Course at the University of Missouri

We have the pleasure to inform you that we will be hosting the Biotechnology Regulation ImmersionCourse (MU-BRIC) again this year. The course will be held from August 28 to September 8, 2017 in
Columbia, Missouri.

As in previous years, the course will consist of two blocks.
The first block will address:

• Modern biotechnology, including hands-on transformations of plants in the laboratory
• The role of modern biotechnology in agriculture, and its current and future pipeline
• Government policies on modern biotechnology – maximizing benefits and minimizing risks
• Maximizing benefits –setting the research agenda
• Minimizing risk — national and international biosafety systems, regulations and agreements
• Hands on training in environmental risk assessment and food/feed safety assessment
• Risk management
• Communication
• Market regulations (labeling regimes, coexistence, low level presence policies, etc.)
• Impact assessment and benefits of biotech crops
• Socioeconomic considerations in decision making and
• The potential impacts of biotech policies and regulations.

The second block will be a ‘fact finding’ tour, from biotech laboratories and field trials to farmers’ fields,and the grain merchandising system all the way to the processing and sale of final products.

The speakers are experts from governments, academia, public sector institutes, and the private sector.

The working language of the course will be English.

Participation fee for the course is $6,250 USD and covers all expenses except travel to the St. Louis Airport (i.e. all domestic travel, accommodations, meals, per diem, tours, domestic insurance and registration fee). Fellowships are available to help partially or fully cover costs of participants who have no other means of getting their expenses covered. In awarding fellowships, priority will be given to individuals from developing countries and countries with economies in transition and who are directly involved in biosafety regulations in their country.

Expressions of interest can be sent to KalaitzandonakesN@missouri.edu, together with a detailed CV in English and a brief explanation of what the candidate hopes to achieve by attending the course.
Participants must fluent in English.

Review of applications will begin in May 2, 2017 and will be completed upon meeting course capacity.

Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, Economics & Management of Agrobiotechnology Center; Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, University of Missouri, USA Piet van der Meer, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Law, University of Ghent, Belgium; Faculty of Science and Bio-Engineering Sciences, Free University Brussels (VUB), Belgium