Team:NAWI Graz/HP/Silver

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• Discussions
• Education
• Interviews
• Public Engagement
• Integrated Human Practices

This year the iGEM Team NAWI_Graz organized different events throughout the year as part of human practice work. We considered it particularly important, that students think about their career opportunities early on as they are our future. It is in their hands, which directions and paths are taken once and since genetic engineering and synthetic biology play an essential role here, it was very important for us to talk with them about this. The fewest people know that genetic engineering is not only used in the agricultural sector but also in medicine and therefore essential in Austria. By this misunderstanding, the generally accepted term genetic engineering has a negative association. In order to stimulate the discourse of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, we organized a discussion evening to clarify those misunderstandings and half-truths. To improve our project and construct design, we organized interviews with some experts from different fields. An important point here was the safety assessment of our project to what extent it could pose a risk or threat to the environment. Since we are a large group, finances play a very important role in our project. As the organization of a “Spritzerstandl” is a good way to increase the degree of popularity of iGEM, we planned several events, not only to earn money, also to talk to students and discuss scientific topics.