The International Hellenic University’s MSc in Bioeconomy Law, Regulation and Management is designed to develop technological, financial, legal, and managerial expertise for people who intend to work in public or private services dealing with the studies, consultation, management, regulation and development of biotechnological processes and products. It targets to provide with real world skills the professionals involved in health care facilities, pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, food production and in general in the agro/industrial sector (agricultural, chemical, energy industries, biochemical industries etc.) as well as research centers and universities, and the scientists who deal with specific legal, biosafety and bioethical issues in biotechnology, pharmacy, health, biochemistry, engineering and environmental sciences. The aim of the proposed partnership action is to enrich the curriculum of two taught courses in the MSc, the “Biolaw, Biosafety and Environment” and the “Biomedicine and Law” in connection to related recent technological achievements, in order to increase the Programme’s alumni connections to the Bioeconomy market in the fields of biosafety management and biorisk assessment in regards to environmental protection, and to clinical research safety and ethics. To achieve this, the other two partners are companies that have a specialized know-how in the safe use of biological material with respect to the environment, public health, biomedicine practices, clinical research and the full spectrum of biosafety-related principles in general. The students and the academic stuff of the Programme will gain valuable insight from real-life case studies presented and analyzed by the companies’ experts and knowledge of the needs of the market. Students will also have the opportunity to work on real-life projects proposed by the partners in different sectors (e.g. agri-food, health, industry), and with different stakeholders (authorities, industry). At the same time, the companies’ biosafety and regulatory specialists will acquire up-to-date academic knowledge of novel biotechnological breakthrough tools used in agro-industrial, marine, environmental and red biotechnology area (e.g. Next Generation Sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, Gene Modification, CRISPR, Genetic Engineering and Recombinant DNA). Furthermore, the clinical research experts will get informed by the University’s academic legal experts on Biolaw, about the regulative directions concerning Biomedicine Law and clinical research biosafety management, according to the up-to-date European legislation and directives.
The main objectives of the project were to connect the academic knowledge in biotechnology and biosafety offered by the MSc in Bioeconomy: Biotechnology and Law and in particular the modules of “Biosafety Management and Biorisk Assessment” and “Biomedicine Law”, with practical experiences and practices in the respective fields. To achieve this, a detailed curriculum was redesigned and implemented for the above modules of the spring semester of the MSc, and relevant modules, such as the “Red Biotechnology” and “Applied Biotechnology” were readjusted to accommodate the new information and developing technologies and practices. The lectures and webinars of the modules focused on real-life issues, practical risk assessment aspects, guidelines to complete biosafety management, and biorisk assessment evaluation, and discussions on contemporary ethical issues that arose from novel technologies. Furthermore, during the CoVid pandemic, there was a combined effort to include courses related to public health and epidemiology issues from biosafety, biorisk assessment, and bioethics point of view. The development of real-life case studies based on the experience of the biosafety experts of the partners and the analysis carried out by the students produced interesting results. In three academic years, overall 16 case studies were developed, with practical value. During the second year of the project and after the initiation of the CoVid pandemic, related case studies were developed by LUMC, and assigned to groups of students. During the case study analysis, the students familiarized themselves with practices of risk assessment and consultation in real-life scenarios, which helped them understand better the ethical questions, biosafety regulations, policy procedures and decision-making processes in developing a novel bio-based product or service beneficial for the public. In addition, the teachers benefited from students’ written essays and their oral presentations on the case studies in the first year, and they incorporated new educational material in their lectures the following two years to cover all student knowledge gaps. The discussion of the case studies analysis in front of an audience of academic and teaching staff from all involved partners, help in understanding the aspects of public information and dissemination of scientific data on contradictory subjects. Finally, the content development of the online Bioeconomy and Biosafety related platform resulted in the development of a growing network of connected people with shared interests/experience/expertise in biotechnology and biosafety. These stakeholders include students, bioethics professionals, biotechnologists and biosafety officers. The input of teachers from all partners increased over time, and similarly increased the contribution of stakeholders and interested parties, such as academics from network institutions, professionals of the field and the programme’s alumni. Subjects that are tackled in the platform, were opinion and news articles with original content, news reproduction, job opportunities postings, information on seminars worldwide, conferences and related events of Biotechnology, Bioethics and Biosafety issues, education opportunities and we also have developed a section on the new coronavirus-related information. Overall, the project’s initial objectives were carried out and reached as planned with no significant problems. The achievements were within the scope of the project and the activities planned, accomplished the aims set at the beginning of the project implementation.