BioGovernance Commons is a transnational initiative jointly convened by the GSEJ Director Joy Y. Zhang, along with Kathleen M. Vogel (US), Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley (US) and Ruipeng Lei (China). From September 2021, the initiative organized monthly online discussion groups that focused on specific areas of life science governance. The aim was to host a trusted forum where researchers inside and outside China could meet regularly, under the motto ‘sharing perspectives on shared challenges.’ (Detail see this article published in Issues in Science and Technology)
The online format was initially proposed in response to travel restrictions during the COVID pandemic. In the past 12 months, the initiative received support from scientific and social scientific professionals in Brazil, China, Italy, Greece, the UK and the US. As the world is healing from the pandemic, the hope is that BioGovernance Commons will continue through future in-person meetings and can inspire similar endeavors in building mutual understanding and confidence across different (cultural or professional) communities.
To bring its online activities to a close, there are two concluding online forums: one is a US-China dialogue on ‘How to Build Better Global Governance of Science,’ (US Eastern Standard Time: 20:00-23:00 August 24, 2022, chaired by Kathleen M. Vogel) the other one is EU-China dialogue on ‘How to Make “the China Story” More Informative’ (8am British Standard Time, September 6, 2022, chaired by Joy Y. Zhang).
Agendas of the first forums is as follows, if you are interested in attending, please email: GSEJ@kent.ac.uk
Forum 1: How to Build Better Global Governance of Science: A US-China Dialogue
Beijing Time: 8:00-11:00 August 25, 2022; US Eastern Standard Time: 20:00-23:00 August 24, 2022
Chaired by Kathleen M. Vogel (Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University.)
| US Eastern Standard Time | Speakers |
| 20:00 – | Kathleen Vogel: Chair’s Welcome remarks |
| 20:05 – | Xian-En Zhang, Professor in Faculty of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. |
| 20:16 – | Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Professor and Director of the Center for Embryonic and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon |
| 20:27 – | Leifan Wang, Associate Professor at Tianjin University School of Law and researcher at Tianjin University Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy. |
| 20:38 – | Nancy Connell, Senior Scientist at the US-National Academies in Washington DC and Professor Emerita at Rutgers University. |
| 20:50 – | Hepeng Jia, Professor of Science Communication, Soochow University, Suzhou, China. |
| 21:01 – | Aaron Mertz, Founding Director of the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program |
| 21:15 – | Yuhan Bao, Human Practices Program Officer, iGEM Foundation |
| 21:26 – | Chunliang Fan, Professor of School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. |
| 21:37 – | Ben Hurlbut, Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. |
| 21:48 – | Guangxi He, Director of the Institute of International Relations on Science and Technology, China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy. |
| 22:00 – | Reflections on the BioGovernance Commons initiative from co-organizers Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley (Associate Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University) and Ruipeng Lei (Executive Director of the Centre for Bioethics, School of Philosophy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology) |
| 22:15 – 23:00 | Group discussion |