Standard Grant: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in Wild Populations

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目研究两个问题，这些问题与公众对正在开发的项目的商议有关，这些项目利用技术来修改野生生物的种群，在某些情况下，通过创造和释放大量修改的个体来实现。第一个问题涉及哪些类型的基因改造项目应该涉及公众审议，第二个问题涉及在有必要时应该如何进行审议。该项目的总体目标是开发政治上合法和值得信赖的决策程序，以便更好地利用技术来改变野生生物的种群，这意味着包括纳入社会价值观的机制，这些价值观关于可以和应该对共享环境做什么。这个项目将向那些关心公众审议的科学和政策制定者提供建议，同时促进对公众审议的学术理解。此外，它还将产生用于教育的产品，从而帮助教育下一代科学家关于围绕新兴生物技术的治理挑战。改变野生生物种群的基因改造项目具有重大的潜在好处、风险和不确定性，无论是对人类福利还是对共享环境本身有价值的方面。这项研究项目的目的是解决公众广泛审议的两个首要问题：对于什么样的野生生物种群改造项目应该进行公众审议，以及在需要审议的地方，应该如何进行？鉴于所涉及的价值观，必须有关于哪些项目需要公众协商参与的指导方针；必须知道公众何时应该有机会集体思考，并就是否以及如何实施这种基因改造项目发表意见，包括应在多大范围内进行这种审议(仅在可能释放生物体的社区，或更广泛地，甚至在国家或国际上)。这项研究项目将使用一个跨学科工作组的基于案例的分析，并将提供该工作组的调查结果与相关文献的综合。结果将推动公众审议的研究；它将产生并向学术界、科学研究、政策制定和教育领域的受众传播关于公众审议的建议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a research project that studies two questions having to do with public deliberation about projects that are in development to use technologies to modify populations of wild organisms, in some cases by creating and releasing large numbers of modified individuals. The first question addresses what kinds of genetic-modification projects should involve public deliberation, and the second addresses how deliberation should be conducted when it is warranted. The overarching goal of the project is to develop politically legitimate and trustworthy decision-making processes for good use of technologies to modify populations of wild organisms, meaning processes that include mechanisms for incorporating society's values about what may and should be done to the shared environment. This project will offer recommendations to those in science and policy-making concerned about public deliberation, in addition to advancing scholarly understanding of public deliberation. In addition, it will generate products for educational use, thereby helping to educate the next generation of scientists about the governance challenges that surround emerging bio-technologies.Genetic modification projects that modify populations of wild organisms have significant potential benefits, risks, and uncertainties, both for human welfare and for aspects of the shared environment that are valued in themselves. The objective of this research project is to address two overarching questions about broad public deliberation: For what kinds of projects to modify populations of wild organisms should public deliberation be conducted, and where deliberation is warranted, how should it be conducted? Given the values at stake, it is essential to have guidelines concerning which projects require deliberative public engagement; it is essential to know when the public should have opportunities to think collectively and to have a voice concerning both whether and how such genetic-modification projects are to be implemented, including how broadly such deliberations should occur (only in communities where organisms might be released, or more broadly, even nationally or internationally). This research project will use case-based analysis by an interdisciplinary work group and it will provide a synthesis of the group's findings with pertinent literature. The results will advance the study of public deliberation; it will generate and disseminate recommendations about public deliberation to audiences in academia, science research, policy-making, and education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.