Biotechnology for the Environment: A Joint United States - European Union Celebration of a Decade of Environmental Biotechnology Exchange Activities for Early Career Scientists

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Over the past ten years, an Environmental Biotechnology Task Force has trained and facilitated transatlantic collaborations centered on early career scientists. A workshop is now proposed to bring together former participants who are currently active in the field of environmental biotechnology in order to achieve three goals: (1) to assess the impact of the past training activities; (2) to promote further collaborations; and (3) to highlight working group and task force activities in this field. The proposed workshop is scheduled for September 26, 2005 in Brussels, Belgium, where the Task Force originated. The intellectual purpose of the workshop will be to exchange scientific information and ideas between the US and EU participants in order to stimulate novel biotechnological advances and to further encourage the development of productive collaborations. As importantly, the workshop represents a way to assess the impact of the training activities. Presentations by the early career scientists will fill much of the meeting day. A late afternoon poster session will provide an informal opportunity for scientific discussion. The exchange of information will have obvious intellectual benefits including identifying the constraints limiting environmental biotechnology progress. Broader implications include increased cooperation in environmental biotechnology research as well as the benefits associated with increased exposure to cultural differences. The workshop seeks to minimize or even reverse environmental damage by identifying acceptable biotechnological control measures.