Human factors affecting the uptake of emerging biotechnologies
Project duration: February 2024 – July 2027
Image credit: Nikolina/Pexels.
The challenge
Emerging biotechnologies are on the road to commercialisation. Innovations like plastic-degrading enzymes, livestock mRNA vaccines, and carbon-capturing bacteria could offer huge benefits to society, once they hit the mainstream.
But whether or not they achieve these benefits will depend on how many people use them. Emerging biotechnologies face obstacles to widespread uptake due to public, regulatory, and industry perceptions. These human factors include perceived risks and benefits, levels of awareness, as well as the styles of reasoning people engage in.
Perceptions along a value chain will profoundly influence how widely emerging biotechnologies are used. As such, they are critical to tackle alongside the technical challenges in advanced biotechnology development.
Our response
This project is working to understand the factors outside the laboratory that influence the adoption and diffusion of plastic-degrading enzymes, livestock mRNA vaccines, and carbon-capturing bacteria.
We are examining how perceptions vary towards these biotechnologies between the public, producers, regulators and industry representatives. We aim to uncover transferable insights to aid the widespread use of new biotechnologies and the maximum delivery of benefits.
These objectives will be achieved through nationally representative surveys, expert consultation, and key stakeholder interviews.
Impact
The findings of this research will inform the design and development of biotechnologies in agriculture, health and for environmental sustainability.
They will also identify pathways for public adoption to maximise the uptake and utility of these technologies in society.
Assessing user perceptions of advanced engineering biotechnologies across their respective value chains will help refine how they can be most beneficial.