Programme

Sunday 16 November	Registration, Welcome Reception, Poster Session
Monday 17 November	Symposium Sessions, Evening Workshops
Tuesday 18 November	Symposium Sessions, Symposium Banquet
Wednesday 19 November	Symposium Sessions (morning), Excursions (afternoon)
Thursday 20 November	ISBR/OECD Session, Public Forum, Evening Workshops
Friday 21 November	Symposium Sessions

The 10th ISBGMO Sessions:

Session 1	Biosafety: Experience and Results Chair: Sally McCammon (USA) Biotechnology has produced remarkable results and the promise of new products. The issues that have arisen in association with genetically-engineered crops over the past decade have challenged biosafety researchers to address the needs of risk assessors. As our knowledge increases and the regulatory requirements evolve, can we assure that we are addressing the appropriate issues?
Session 2	Introgression, Naturalisation, and Invasion Chairs: BaoRong Lu (China) and Rosie Hails (UK) Many cultivated plants are able to hybridise with wild relatives and thus GM plants can introduce transgenes into wild and weed populations. The rate of introgression and naturalisation depends on reproductive factors and on any advantages to individuals and populations associated with the transgene. This session will examine methods for determining the likelihood of naturalisation and the invasiveness of plant populations drawing on both GM and introduced species examples.
Session 3	Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance Chairs: Ervin Balazs (Hungary) and Mark Tepfer (Italy) Resistance to biotic stressors, such as insects and viruses, has been one of the major early goals of development of genetically modified plants. More recently, considerable success has also been reported on creating resistance to abiotic stressors, such as drought and salinity. This session will address the potential impact of transgenes conferring resistance to biotic or abiotic stress. Gene flow from crops to wild/weedy relatives can be expected to have effects on certain fitness parameters. This session will explore strategies for evaluating the likelihood of stress-resistance transgenes affecting fitness parameters, and will include presentations on ecological, experimental and modeling studies.
Session 4	GM Animals Chair: Goetz Laible (New Zealand) A range of vertebrate and invertebrate animals have been transformed for a range of medical, veterinary, plant protection and production purposes. This session will discuss examples of research and development in this area. The risk assessment challenges and the methods being developed will be discussed.
Session 5	Impacts on Soil Ecosystems Chairs: Konny Smalla (Germany) and Leda Mendonca-Hagler (Brazil) The interactions between GM microbes and plants and the soil environment are complex because of the nature of soil ecosystems. This session will examine recent approaches to studying impacts at both the organismal and functional level and the consequences for environmental risk assessment.
Session 6	ISBR/OECD Session: Risk assessment - state of the art Chairs: Sally McCammon (USA), Sue Meek (Australia), Peter Kearns (FR) This one-day session will examine current frameworks for conducting risk assessments for GMOs and will address ongoing challenges facing risk assessors and regulators, including - dealing with assumptions, uncertainties and data gaps - selecting appropriate endpoints, experimental controls, models for analyzing exposure and effects, and monitoring regimes - communicating risks and results.
Session 7	Biocontainment Methods Chair: Joachim Schiemann (Germany) There are several tools to reduce pollen and seed mediated gene flow from GM crops which can be applied for different field releases (experimental and commercial). This session will review biocontainment methods which are currently applicable, under development or being researched. The contribution of these methods for managing the cultivation of GM plants will be critically reviewed.
Session 8	Post Market Environmental Monitoring Chair: Jeremy Sweet (UK) Post market monitoring can be a useful tool for examining uncertainties in ERA and for observing anticipated and unanticipated post market environmental impacts. It is important that methods and systems used are designed to meet clear scientific objectives and to inform both regulators and risk assessors. This session will examine the lessons learnt from existing and developing PMEM programmes in several countries.

Evening Workshops:

Workshop 1	Designing Field Experiments for Environmental Risk Assessment Chair: Hector Quemeda (USA) Field trials are an essential step in the development of GM crops. They serve to obtain data necessary to judge product performance as well as data relevant to risk assessments. Proper confinement measures are required in order to conduct field trials safely. This workshop will review the principles of field trial confinement and provide participants with case studies that they will evaluate with these principles in mind.
Workshop 2	Regulators' Forum Chairs: Libby Harrison/Janet Gough (ERMA, New Zealand) and Sue Meek/Paul Keese (OGTR, Australia) Regulators need to make decisions in circumstances where there is considerable variation in the quality and quantity of evidence/information. The decision-making process is often complicated by lack of information and other aspects of uncertainty. A group discussion amongst regulators will be held to achieve a broader understanding of different regulatory approaches to incorporate information and uncertainty in risk assessments.
Workshop 3	Novel Approaches to Environmental Risk Assessment Chair: Tony Conner (New Zealand) This workshop will challenge current environmental risk assessment methods and consider novel and supplementary approaches, including methods which focus less on the GMO but more on impacts on receiving environments, sustainable systems and protection goals.
Workshop 4	Risk Communication Chair: Kristina Sinemus (Germany) This workshop will examine the issues associated with risk recognition, classification, response and communication by different sectors of society. A New Zealand Maori case study will be used as an example of societal attitudes and the workshop will explore societal responses to technological novelty, uncertainty and risk.

Each Plenary Session will consist of 2-4 presentations by invited keynote speakers and 2-4 contributed presentations. After the Symposium, selected presenters will be invited to submit their papers for review for publication in a special edition of Environmental Biosafety Research Journal to be published in 2009.