Is anyone listening?
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David C. Ireland is a PhD student at the University of Queensland. His project is a joint initiative between the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the UQ Business School. His publications have appeared in journals in both science and business disciplines. He is supported by an Australian National Heart and Medical Research Council scholarship. Craig Cormick is the Manager of Public Awareness for the Government agency Biotechnology Australia. He has previously worked as a science journalist and has taught public relations and writing at university. He is widely published on drivers of public attitudes towards biotechnology, and is a regular commentator in the media and at industry and research conferences, both in Australia and overseas, on causes of public concern towards applications of biotechnology. Damian Hine is a senior lecturer at the UQ Business School, University of Queensland, where he has published extensively on entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as intellectual capital issues from a firm-based perspective in international journals and is on the editorial board of a number of international entrepreneurship journals. Damian has recently launched a book entitled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology and is the co-editor of another book entitled Innovative Methodologies in Enterprise Research.
Abstract Emerging industries such as the life sciences, animal health, agricultural biotechnology and environmental products offer both a potential for economic growth and improvements in quality of life, crop and stock yield, the environment, and industrial productivity. The growth and success of these industries depends on a combination of good science and good business. Biotechnology, for instance, is one emerging industry that has promised much, yet the delivery still seems to be some way off. Difficulties convincing well-informed investors of the virtues of biotechnology may be indicative of a wider communication failure. Despite numerous initiatives to popularize and sell science, it seems the attitudes and understanding of society towards science and scientists and the importance scientists place on communicating with society remains depressingly low. One-way late-stage communication models have proven ineffective and have only further alienated the very audiences they meant to attract. Solving these problems requires the involvement of both the scientific community and wider society, where appropriate information is presented in a non-guarded and accessible language, and is received by open and willing ears, setting the scene for interactive, educated debates that can progress rather than hinder the science. This paper explores the various science–society interactions and identifies a need for early-stage two-way communication models.
Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2007) 13, 86–98. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jcb.3050043 Keywords: biotechnology, technology, science , society, communication models
INTRODUCTION The erratic performance of the biotechnology indus
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