Dissemination related to the "Going to the Roots of the Stem Cell Controversy" project

In order to achieve the objectives of the project dissemination activities will be undertaken targeted at each of the identified stakeholder groups. Reaching the public We intend to hold an open half-day meeting in Oslo for 100-150 people with a format a llowing for both dissemination of project results and interaction with and within the audience. The focus of the discussion sessions will be future developments, since these are likely to generate most public interest The language of the meeting will be N orwegian, except for presentations given by international speakers. Reaching decision-makers We intend to hold a half-day workshop for 20-30 political, administrative and industry decision-makers in the stem cell area on the day before or after the publi c meeting. The workshop will be by invitation only and will be held centrally in Oslo. Three sessions will focus on: 1) adult stem cells, prospects and issues, 2) embryonic and foetal stem cells, prospects and issues, and 3) emerging issues, e.g. stem cel ls from chimaeric embryos, egg donation for stem cell derivation and intellectual property and control of stem cell lines. Reaching the academic community Results from the project have already been published and more manuscripts are submitted or in prepa ration. We do, however think that more effective dissemination can be achieved if the project as a whole can be presented. We intend to achieve this by two high profile dissemination activities directed towards the international academic community: 1. A w orkshop at the main European meeting for medical ethics, the annual conference of the European Society for the Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care to take place in Cardiff in August 2007. 2. A special issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics, one of the leading international medical ethics journals, based on papers given at project workshops or specifically commissioned.