Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Renewal of the Arrangement between the European Commission and the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the United States of America establishing a Task Force on Biotechnology Research

On 7 September 1990, Vice-President Filippo M. Pandolfi and Dr David Allan Bromley, Assistant to President George H.W. Bush for Science and Technology, signed the document establishing the Task Force on Biotechnology Research for a period of five years. The Arrangement has since been renewed three times, in 1996, 2001 and 2006.

The Arrangement for the Task Force concerns different forms for exchange of information and coordination regarding the scientific aspects of biotechnology research. Through the years this Task Force has played a key role in establishing a diverse range of emerging scientific fields, including systems biology, marine genomics, applications of biotechnology to sustainable energy and synthetic biology. Major societal concerns have also been addressed, such as emerging infectious diseases, nutrition, obesity, biotechnology for cleaning-up pollution, as well as bioethics, the role of women in science and public perception of biotechnology.

In June 2010, the Task Force celebrated its 20th anniversary with the high-level conference "Biotechnology Research for a Complex World", organised under the Spanish Presidency of the EU. A joint publication between the European Commission and the US Government highlights the role of the EU-US Task Force in bringing together researchers from both sides of the Atlantic to anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s science today.

The need for transatlantic collaboration in this unique forum in the near future shows no sign of receding, and the activities of the Task Force on Biotechnology Research may become even more important. The strategic plan on what the Task Force wants to deliver over the next five years includes a series of cooperative activities on important scientific fields such as synthetic biology, marine genomics, environmental biotechnology, animal health, sustainable biobased products and plant biotechnology, and bioinformatics.

For these reasons, the Commission intends to renew the Arrangement between the European Commission and the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the United States of America a fourth time.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)366: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:366:FIN

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