STW publishes first call in Biotechnology and Safety programme (€ 500,000)

Technology Foundation STW has published the first call in the programme Towards Modernization of Biotechnology and Safety. Deadline for submitting pre-proposals for the call 'Current Genetic Modification Techniques and Applications in relation to Safety' is May 17, 2016. Academic applicants are invited to submit proposals which are innovative in terms of creative research. Interdisciplinary (international) consortia and/or collaborations are encouraged.  
 
The main goal of the programme is to build scientific knowledge concerning the risks and uncertainties associated with state-of-the art and future modern biotechnology developments and applications, as well as to gain knowledge on ways to minimise and control those risks. As research on innovations does not automatically take into account the risks associated with them, the aim of this programme is to stimulate the integration of risk research into current and future innovations in the field of modern biotechnology. 
 
For the first call projects are invited under the following themes:

Viral vector shedding in gene therapy;
Survival of complex GMOs in the environment;
Environmental risks of large-scale production using GMOs;
Other approaches to risk assessment.

The budget available is € 3 million. Funding is between € 250,000 and € 500,000. Deadline for the submission of a full proposal is August 30, 2016. The second call 'New and future Biotechnology Techniques and Applications in relation to Safety' will open in June this year.