Educating the European Public for Biotechnology
	Work Programme The work programme will address the following issues: National, regional and local policies and actions for assisting education for biotechnology among the general population; How and to what extent schools, universities, etc incorporate biotechnology issues into their instructional activities; How other organisations, public and private, contribute to public understanding of biotechnology; The role of media: serious, tabloid, local, weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines, radio and television; The range of books, CDs and other publications readily available in bookshops and public libraries; The comparable situation in the United States as exemplified by California; The availability and distribution of information during preparations for the 1998 Swiss Gene Protection Initiative; The correlation of these data with public opinion data and the establishment of guidelines for best educational practice.   Each partner will make a preliminary survey of his/her own country to be followed by more detailed network discussions. A mid-project workshop will review and compare the data assembled to date from each country; consider how best to integrate that information, plan follow-up surveys in each country (except California) to elucidate points emerging in the workshop discussions and agree an interim report. A final workshop will review all the data, discuss the dissemination of possible guidelines for best educational practice for biotechnology and consider suggestions for improving "Eurobarometer" questionnaires in this area.
	Page updated 17.04.2000 by O. Doblhoff Site hosted by Institute for Applied Microbiology, University for Agriculture, Vienna Austria