Governance Frameworks of Genetically Modified (GM) Insects

Occasional Speaker: Sarah Hartley

Governance of Emerging Technologies

Two projects analyze efforts to open up science policy to a broader range of voices. The first project, in the Leverhulme Trust Making Science Public program, explores the influence of non-state actors on European risk assessment policy (“Guidance”) for genetically modified animals. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission’s scientific arm responsible for food safety, relies heavily on independent experts and consults non-state actors when developing Guidance. In this case, non-state actors had limited influence. EFSA and the Commission failed to recognize Guidance as policy. When policy masquerades as science, unjustified restrictions are placed on non-state actor involvement. The second project explores how responsible research and innovation (RRI) is interpreted within a research-intensive university and provides six contradictory, complex and contested narratives to characterize how RRI is being enacted and the potential opportunities and challenges it offers.   

About Sarah Hartley

Sarah Hartley is a political scientist involved in interdisciplinary research in the University of Nottingham School of Biosciences. Her research focuses primarily on governance at the science/policy interface, particularly the relationship between science, ethics, and public policy in the governance of emerging technologies.

McCord Hall, Room 156