Tracks/Policy Practices

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Revision as of 18:10, 31 January 2014 by Efrow (Talk | contribs)


iGEM 2014 Policy and Practices New Track

We are excited to announce a track devoted to policy and practices in iGEM 2014. While Human Practices have been a part of iGEM for many years, they featured as a core element of the iGEM program within each team. This year, we are announcing teams can participate solely in the practices area of synbio.

Requirements:

Policy and Practices teams must meet the general iGEM 2014 requirements. In addition, P&P teams must meet the following track specific requirements:

The iGEM Policy & Practices track aims to stimulate innovative ways of thinking about the policy, economic, social, legal, and philosophical landscape of synthetic biology. Teams participating in this track are developing skills and tools that will help to prepare synthetic biologists for the world they’re working in, and help the world decide how it might best make use of synthetic biology

In addition to the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Policy and Practice teams are required to complete the following:

  • Developing your iGEM Policy & Practices Team:
    • Faculty Advisors: Each team must work with at least two senior mentors. One of the senior mentors must be a faculty member. One mentor should be based in the humanities or social sciences (including law, economics, governance and public policy), and one from any other discipline including, but not limited to, science, engineering, social sciences, medicine, and law. Additional faculty members may also be listed as faculty advisors. A faculty member must be designated as the primary faculty advisor. She or he is ultimately responsible for the official registration of the team, the team roster, and payment of team fees.
    • Advisors: In addition to the required roles above, teams are encouraged to recruit non-faculty advisors. These can include postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as current or former policymakers, government officials, legal advisors, entrepreneurs, or members of non-governmental organizations, regulatory agencies or funding bodies.
  • Project Submissions:

    Submissions are needed to create a valuable commons of ideas for future teams and the synthetic biology community as a whole.

    Team submissions are required to convey (1) the project inspiration, (2) clearly articulated question(s) the project proposes to address, (3) detailed method(s) used in the project, (4) discussion of the challenges encountered in pursuing this work, (5) an explanation of who the project findings should be of interest to and why, and (6) an explanation of how the approach(es) might be adapted and scaled for others to use. In addition to the abjove requirements, Policy and Practice teams should also prepare the following:

    • A 2-page executive summary (that can reference additional resources on your wiki)
    • A 3-minute video that is accessible to an interested lay audience
    • any other formats you think can help iGEM teams and the broader community understand and interact with your work. This could be anything from an educational handbook, a software tool, a report, or a policy brief. We encourage you to be creative and to think about platforms that can be broadly shared and adapted.
  • Parts: Teams in the policy & practices division will not receive a copy of the 2014 distribution. They are not required to perform wet-lab work or to deposit new BioBricks in the Registry.

Policy and Practices Track Committee:

  • Megan Palmer (co-chair)
  • Emma Frow (co-chair)
  • Laura Adam
  • Nancy Burgess
  • Jane Calvert
  • Linda Kahl
  • Todd Kuiken
  • David Lloyd
  • Ken Oye
  • Piers Millet
  • Tim Trevan