Gunnarsdottir, Kristrun and Strand, Roger and Stephens, Neil and O'Riordan, Kate and Fotopoulou, Aristea and Giampietro, Mario and Kovacic, Zora and Lemkow Zetterling, Louis and Di Masso Tarditti, Marina (2015) Reporting on the case study of synthetic meat:summary of findings and policy considerations. Lancaster University.
Abstract
The in-vitro meat (IVM) research field remains small with perhaps 50 or so scientists active globally. These scientists are in the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Sweden, Israel and Norway, with some interest expressed in Denmark and by a group of bioreactor engineers in Portugal.The aim of the Epinet case study was to explore and interact with these epistemic communities / networks that have been developing, implementing, supporting and promoting IVM technologies. The study team consisted of expertise in sociotechnical evaluations, systems and uncertainty analysis, ethics and media studies. The team identified early on a small set of policy considerations around the issues of public funding and the social shaping of IVM. The question of whether or not IVM research should be publicly funded has had to be viewed in relation to how IVM technologies are represented, understood, shaped and reshaped and, accordingly, what sort of IVM activities should be funded.