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Review
. 2022 Oct 20;7(1):ysac022.
doi: 10.1093/synbio/ysac022. eCollection 2022.

Hurdles in responsive community engagement for the development of environmental biotechnologies

Avery M Normandin  1 , Lily M Fitzgerald  1 , Julianne Yip  1   2 , Sam Weiss Evans  3
Affiliations
Review

Hurdles in responsive community engagement for the development of environmental biotechnologies

Avery M Normandin et al. Synth Biol (Oxf). .

Abstract

Recent calls for engaging communities in biotechnology development do not draw enough attention to the hurdles that must be overcome for engagement strategies to effectively feed back into research design and conduct. These hurdles call into question many standard ways of operating and assessing in traditional scientific disciplines. The first steps in addressing these hurdles can be the most difficult. In reflecting on our own experiences in the early-stage development of environmental biotechnologies, we provide a set of techniques to help scientists and their collaborators learn to become more responsive to the needs and attitudes of communities with which they are engaging. Graphical Abstract.

Keywords: community and stakeholder engagement; environmental biotechnologies; gene drives; responsive science.

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