Team:Oxford/policy and practices

In the emerging field of synthetic biology, iGEM is growing as a source of ambitious and imaginative ideas which have the potential to offer great benefits to human society and our environment. The number of successful iGEM start-ups clearly demonstrates that the competition gives teams the opportunity to get involved in much more than just a summer project; students have the chance to come up with a solution which has a positive impact in the real world.
In fact, many projects are conceived in the hope of doing just this, often with a specific unresolved social problem in mind. iGEM draws inspiration from the world and the challenges it faces, and contributes back potential solutions.

"Quote from EA about usefulness of our project/bioremediation/synthetic biology generally, the fact that it could actually help the problem etc…” (British Environment Agency)

Our work with the Environment Agency, which inspired us to explore bioremediation as an option for dealing with the pressing environmental concern cause by chlorinated solvent pollution, brought home just how great an impact our own project might have on this issue. Chlorinated solvents are indispensable to many manufacturing, professional, and even everyday household activities, yet no environmentally acceptable method of disposal currently exists. Our research has led us to believe that bioremediation is a genuinely viable option for addressing this challenge, a position which the Environment Agency has supported. We realized that what began as an iGEM project may well be worth developing further than the months we had available to complete the competition.

With this in mind, for the policy and practices element of our project we decided to ask…

HOW CAN AN IGEM PROJECT CHANGE THE REAL WORLD?

For the policy and practices element of the competition, our team has researched how iGEM projects grow from ideas into real world solutions. What are the challenges facing teams who want to develop their projects beyond the jamboree? What can be done to help them realise the potential benefits of their ideas for society? And what should we be aiming to achieve by all this?

Our team identified what we believe are the key considerations for teams to take into account.