Event Concept
This year’s GASB SynBio World Cafe: „What stops the SynBio revolution in Germany“ focuses on the different aspects that SynBio Startups are facing. The proven concept of the SynBio World Cafe aims to bridge between the academic and industrial SynBio world and to further connect them to stakeholders from the legislation. The mixed World Cafe participants range from academics, entrepreneurs, industry representatives, venture capitalists to legislators. They will engage in discussion about different topics: funding, entrepreneurial spirit, politics & governing, patents & regulations, as well as laboratory access & automation. Between the different discussion sessions, SynBio stakeholders will give short inspirational talks to nucleate discussions.
Besides talks and group discussions, there will be the possibility for virtual networking.
The SynBio World Cafe will be closing with a quick wrap up from the different topic tables that will be the base for a call of action prepared by GASB and the Hightech-Forum.
Group Discussion Topics
Capital & Finance
Startups in SynBio require significant financial investments since research and proof of principle studies are needed before market access. What are the funding options? What is the bottleneck of fundraising? Do we need more venture and risk capital to boost the SynBio industry in Germany and beyond?
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Many industries rely heavily on the use of AI & ML to optimize their systems and Synthetic Biology is no difference. So how can these approaches help SynBio? How do we implement them into projects? And what are their limitations?
Brain Drain
"Brain Drain" refers to the substantial emigration of individual researchers or even entire institutes/companies and the subsequent loss of knowledge and talent. Many don't see their future in Germany - but why? And how can we prevent this?
Sustainability
How can SynBio impact sustainability? Sustainability is topic that is not only dear to our hearts but also very urgent. That is why we are happy to announce that this table will be hosted by our good friends from the Öko-Progressives Netzwerk .
Automation & Digitalization
Most of the SynBio startups require early and easy to professionally equipped laboratories. Setting up a functional laboratory might be the most prominent first investment for SynBio startups. Do we need more open labs? A startup bench in each academic lab, or will automation solve the problem, and we will have online accessible fully automated SynBio foundries where all experiments can be conducted?