Balance and Outlook Congress about the Initiative Biotechnology 2020+

Berlin 2013, the iGEM Team Marburg was invited to the Abschlusskongress, Bilanz und Ausblick der Initiative [http://www.biotechnologie2020plus.de/ Biotechnologie 2020+] and three of our team packed their suitcases and headed to Berlin, where the congress took place. The Initiative Biotechnology 2020+ is a program introduced by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) in whole Germany, which all in all carries as target the economic, scientific and professional support for the formation of an effective and successfully communication between the academia and the industry uniting fields of research and technology together in the aim of the new generation of results in the biotechnology. The program is not old and the propose of it is to educate the new generation of scientists and technicians for biotechnological procedures and this congress had the objective to present the outlook of the first phase of this strategy process.

The conference took place at the beautiful [http://www.humboldtcarre.de/international/index.php HUMBOLDT CARRÉ] in Berlin and Dr. Helge Braun, the parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research gave a strong welcome speech in which he exhibited briefly the concept of the strategy Biotechnology 2020+ and pictured the outlook of the strategy process. Then a discussion round was originated by representatives of four research societies and one representative of the academia, the discussion was moderated by Karsten Schwanke. Dr. Hans-Otto Feldhütter from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Prof. Dr. Doris Wedlich form the Helmholtz- Gemeinschaft, Prof. Dr. Herbert Jäckle from the Max-Plank-Gesellschaft, Prof. Axel Brakhage from the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft and Prof. Dr. Dietmar Schoburg from the Technische Universität Braunschweig presented various arguments concerning the previous activities of the Initiative Biotechnology 2020+, which pinpoint out the parts need of change. The discussion was finalized with the introduction of many recommendations for the continuation of the Initiative Biotechnology 2020+.

The discussion round was then followed by the exhibition of the research projects of all present research societies. In the pause an informative stand of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research gave the opportunity to everyone to get much more information about the Initiative Biotechnology 2020+. For us the most important event of the conference was the presentation of the projects of all iGEM Teams in Germany for the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition 2013. We could get a deep glimpse in the project of every iGEM Team and we could communicate with the members of all teams and build a network in which ideas, innovations and questions were shared and discuss. One of the most important topics of the evening was to discuss the high participation fees for the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition 2013.

After the pause Dr. Marc Bovenschulte from VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH Berlin and Dr. Rainer Wessel from BIO Deutschland e.V. Berlin discussed in a very open and concise manner the fact of the open source in biotechnological fields. The question was if it is fair to establish or better to say to improve the facility to access information in an open source. The audience had also the chance to express their opinions and believes about the topic and at the end after a vivid discussion the mayor conclusion was that in the world of today it is very important to have information in a open way and to have this information administrated and regulated by a fair copyright agency because in the new generation of research open source information is the most important source of knowledge. Eventually, we (iGEM Team Marburg) could fulfill together with all other iGEM Teams with the goals and expectations of the strategy process of the Initiative Biotechnology 2020+, which display an establishment of an effective communication among many fields with a same propose in the biotechnical sciences.