Lyon, France,
07 February 2001 --
For a few days, the city of Lyon became the
biotech capital of the world. Some 2000 persons representing Industry,
scientists and the civil society, as well as a number of eminent political
figures from the President of France to the Commissioner of Health of the EC to
the minister of research of China, all attended a densely packed program of
thematic plenaries, special sessions and parallel conferences and dinner
debates.
Ismail Serageldin was one of the organizers of the event, a member of the
BioVision "college of chairmen". It also had exhibitions, a youth component
(Biovision-next) and a major meeting place for industrialists and scientists
called "Biosquare". The event also had an open forum and a series of
dinner-debates and many publications. The main conference had a series of
plenaries and four parallel conferences dealing with health, food, agriculture
and industry respectively. Each of the four "streams" had three main
components: to review the state of the art; case studies of success; and future
visions of biotechnology. Each was co-chaired by three eminent persons. Ismail
Serageldin joined Nobel laureate Werner Arber, and Novozymes CEO Steen Riisgard
as co-chair for the stream dealing with "Industrial revolutions through life
sciences". In addition Ismail addressed three separate plenaries: Reporting on
the theme of industrial revolutions through life sciences, he spoke on behalf of
himself and his other two co-chairs. He also spoke at the plenary on the
developing countries, a subject that he insisted should be given prominence in
such meetings, and he also participated in the open forum with NGOs on the
evening preceding the formal opening session with President Chirac. In that
event, his "J'accuse.." statement on the responsibilities of the public
authorities to fund research and create an enabling regulatory framework was
widely noted.
The conference was a big step forward in building a basis for dialogue on the
complex issues that the rapidly changing technology is creating for many
societies. The next BioVision is scheduled for 9-12 April 2003.
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