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Delivering on the EU Green Deal: What role for innovation and disruptive technologies in agriculture?

17-12-2020

Delivering on the EU Green Deal: What role for innovation and disruptive technologies in agriculture?

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE



The EU Green Deal seeks to “transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use”. The development of innovative solutions is thus of key importance.

There are numerous efforts aimed at achieving a more sustainable future through inventions, including in the field of agriculture, which is both strongly impacted by climate change and a driver of climate change at the same time. Its role is therefore key for a sustainable future. New technological solutions in the field of biotechnology for instance have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to make agricultural resources more resilient to climate change.

In addition to a solid framework for innovation, a smart Intellectual Property (IP) system is considered as being essential in order to promote research in innovative technologies. On the other hand, initiatives such as Open Source Seed have emerged which seek to promote sharing access to genetic resources in the field of agriculture. These initiatives are inspired by the free and open source software movement that has provided alternatives to proprietary software.

Stakeholders disagree about which model is best suited to deliver and provide for sufficient innovation for society. Are patent protection and open source incompatible alternatives, or do both play an important role to bring innovation to life?

Join this EURACTIV virtual conference to debate how best to use the full potential of agriculture in order to bring forward innovative solutions that will help achieve the objectives of the Green Deal. And how will the Commission's IP Action Plan, scheduled to be announced before the end of 2020, better protect innovation in agriculture whilst facilitating a fast move towards a greener economy?

WATCH THE RECORDING HERE

Supported by:

Location

Online

Panellists

Denis Dambois, Policy expert, IPR Unit, DG Grow, European Commission

Jürgen Eckhardt, Senior Vice President and Head of Leaps by Bayer

Alain Strowel, Professor UCLouvain, attorney Pierstone

Johannes Kotschi, Open Source Seeds – Agrecol

Heli Pihlajamaa, Director Patent Law, European Patent Office (EPO)

Moderator

Jennifer Baker, Journalist, EURACTIV

Schedule

09:30 – 09:35 Welcome & House rules
09:35 – 9:55 Panellists statements
9:55 – 10:55 Discussion & Q&A
10:55 – 11:00 Closing statements

Contact

Simona Ovesea
simona.ovesea@euractiv.com
+32 (0)2 788 36 86

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The European Commission adopted its intellectual property plan in November, hailed as a driver of future growth, but the plant breeding sector remains divided over the potential of intellectual property rights for spurring on much-needed agricultural innovation.