Synthetische biologie

In the autumn of 2011 iGEM, the worldwide synthetic biology competition for students, came to Amsterdam for the first time. On the night preceding this event the Rathenau Instituut organized, together with the European iGEM Committee 2011, a Meeting of Young Minds, in which political youth organisations from the Netherlands and the iGEM participants debated the future of synthetic biology.

The Rathenau Instituut supported the political youth organisations in the preparation for the debate for example, by means of information and future scenarios on SynBio. Furthermore, the Rathenau Institute organized a Jumpstart Meeting together with the iGEM team of TU Delft, to boost the knowledge of the political youth organizations on SynBio. In this meeting they were informed by experts on SynBio and also invited to put on a white coat and enter the world of bioengineering themselves.

The following political youth organizations participated in the debate:

• PINK! (Youth Party for Animal Welfare)

• SGP-Jongeren (Reformed Political Youth Party)

• DWARS (GreenLeft Youth Organization)

• CDJA (Christian Democratic Youth Appeal)

• Jonge Socialisten (Young Socialists)

• Jonge Democraten (Young Democrats)

• PerspectieF (Political youth organisation of the ChristianUnion)

More information:

• Message from the European Parliament to the participants of the Meeting of Young Minds
• Photos of the event (on Facebook)