Bioengineering horizon scan 2020

• Published in: eLife Vol. 9
• Main Authors: Kemp, Luke, Adam, Laura, Boehm, Christian R, Breitling, Rainer, Casagrande, Rocco, Dando, Malcolm, Djikeng, Appolinaire, Evans, Nicholas G, Hammond, Richard, Hills, Kelly, Holt, Lauren A, Kuiken, Todd, Markotić, Alemka, Millett, Piers, Napier, Johnathan A, Nelson, Cassidy, ÓhÉigeartaigh, Seán S, Osbourn, Anne, Palmer, Megan, Patron, Nicola J, Perello, Edward, Piyawattanametha, Wibool, Restrepo-Schild, Vanessa, Rios-Rojas, Clarissa, Rhodes, Catherine, Roessing, Anna, Scott, Deborah, Shapira, Philip, Simuntala, Christopher, Smith, Robert Dj, Sundaram, Lalitha S, Takano, Eriko, Uttmark, Gwyn, Wintle, Bonnie, Zahra, Nadia B, Sutherland, William J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 29.05.2020; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Agriculture; Bioengineering; Biotechnology; Climate Change; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Crops; Female; Forecasting; foresight; Funding; Genetic Engineering; Genetically altered foods; Genetics and Genomics; horizon scanning; Human Biology and Medicine; Humans; Internationality; Male; Medical research; Nonnative species; Outsourcing; Pandemics; Plants, Genetically Modified; Point of View; Politics; Proteins; Researchers; Social change; Social interactions; United Kingdom > UK; human biology; biotechnology; genetics; point of view; genomics; medicine; horizon scanning; none; foresight; bioengineering
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.54489

Horizon scanning is intended to identify the opportunities and threats associated with technological, regulatory and social change. In 2017 some of the present authors conducted a horizon scan for bioengineering (Wintle et al., 2017). Here we report the results of a new horizon scan that is based on inputs from a larger and more international group of 38 participants. The final list of 20 issues includes topics spanning from the political (the regulation of genomic data, increased philanthropic funding and malicious uses of neurochemicals) to the environmental (crops for changing climates and agricultural gene drives). The early identification of such issues is relevant to researchers, policy-makers and the wider public.