The ICGEB Biosafety Group is currently providing technical assistance under a series of sub-contracts with the  University of West Indies (UWI), the Executing Agency of the current  UNEP-GEF funded Biosafety Regional Project for Implementing National Biosafety Frameworks in the Caribbean Sub-region. The objective of the Regional Project is to implement effective, operable, transparent and sustainable National Biosafety Frameworks which cater to national and regional needs, deliver global benefits and are compliant with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in 12 Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and the Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Biosafety Group is providing assistance to help draft both biosafety legislation and the associated implementing regulations. This is in addition to developing technical guidelines, administrative procedures, and public communication texts and scripts, along with training the key in-country personnel (or expected to be) involved. 

To date, the Biosafety Group has completed the following activities:

• Three UWI/ICGEB Biosafety Training Workshops on Risk Analysis, held in Bridgetown, Barbados (14–18 March 2016), Castries, Saint Lucia (08–12 February 2016), and Nassau, The Bahamas (14-18 September 2015)
  
• A Communication Strategy for the Caribbean, with examples of supporting radio spots, brochures and fact sheets
  
• In-country missions and Skype sessions with a legal expert, to provide technical support and coaching to project countries in the process of developing their own legal and administrative systems
  
• The production of guidelines which enable the project countries to operationalise their administrative systems
  
• A “best-fit” general model of an administrative system for managing LMOs, LMO-FFPs and contained use
  
• A UWI/ICGEB Workshop on Biosafety Regulations and Administrative Systems, held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (18-22 May 2015)
  
• A UWI/ICGEB Workshop on Biosafety Legislation, held in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago (11-15 May 2015)
  

Those of you that receive the Crop Biotech Updates newsletter will have seen that 110 Nobel Laureates have signed a petition asking Greenpeace to stop opposing GM crops. If you would like to support this initiative, you can do so by following this link.

On the 14th and 15th of June 2016 EuropaBio organized a workshop titled: “Back to basics: risk assessment principles for GM plants”. The objective of this workshop was to re-visit the way in which food and feed risk assessments are conducted in the EU and discuss whether these risk assessments are fit for purpose. Over 90 international participants registered for the workshop representing industry, academia, EFSA, the European Commission (EC) and EU Member States (MS).The workshop was divided in five sections:

               1. Risk assessment principles for GM plants.

               2. Weight of evidence. Case study: Allergenicity.

               3. Risk vs Hazard and Exposure. Case study: protein safety.

               4. Assessing unintended effects. Case study: Risk assessment of GM plants with stacked traits.

               5. Conclusions of the workshop.

There were presentations from industry, the EFSA GMO Unit, International scientists and some Member States representatives. A panel discussion took place at the end of each session so attendees could pose questions to the speakers and engage in discussion. 

The workshop provided a platform to discuss risk assessment issues for food and feed import applications in the EU. The need to consider exposure and hazard in any risk assessment and to make a clear differentiation between “nice to know” and “need to know” information for fit for purpose risk assessments were highlighted. The participants seemed to agree that although current EU guidelines appear to follow the international CODEX principles, they contain additional requirements and a high prescription on how the data must be generated. It would therefore appear that the knowledge gathered on risk assessment of GM foods during the last 20 years, is not reflected in current EU and data requirements are increasing. These guidelines are now legally binding and restrict the case-by-case approach.

Many of you may have heard the news that sadly in March 2016 we lost our colleague and dear friend Silvia Fernandez. She lost a brave battle against cancer. Silvia was an entomologist that while working at Monsanto helped in the development of tests for NTOs to support environmental risk assessments. She also had extensive expertise in insect resistance management and regulatory affairs. Through these efforts, she made great contributions to biosafety research. Silvia will be remembered as a solid scientist of great integrity, a valued colleague and a lovely person. We were very fortunate to have known Silvia and will miss her kind and warm personality and her clever and useful inputs. She will never be forgotten.