European Action on Global Life Sciences

Addressing Europe’s responsibilities towards the developing world

European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES) aims at enhancing the collaboration between European researchers and researchers in the developing world to fight hunger and disease. EAGLES has been launched by the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB). The project is being supported by the European Commission and is a collaboration between EFB and scientific partners in Europe, China, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa and the Philippines. Members of the Steering Committees include prominent scientists from China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Syria and Thailand.

A number of EAGLES conferences and workshops will be organised during the next three years in Europe and various developing countries (DEC). The topics will illustrate the need for much more effective European responses on the use of biology in combating problems in health and food supply in the DECs and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The first major EAGLES conference was held on 26-29 April 2006 as part of BioVision at the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

Here is an overview of some of the latest events:

April 14-15 2008 EAGLES organized a Food Symposium in collaboration with BioVision Alexandria.
Website http://www.bibalex.org/bva08/home/home.aspx The press release from this Symposium can be found here. A more comprehensive report will be displayed on the EAGLES website as soon as it is ready for publication.

The latest EAGLES workshop took place May 6-8 2008 in the Philippines and dealt with Intellectual Property Right related to food production in the developing world. The Workshop was hosted by Gerard Barry from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). A report from this workshop will soon be available on the EAGLES website.

The 15th May 2008 EAGLES had a hearing in the European Parliament on The Global Perspective of Biofuels.  The PowerPoint presentations the speakers used as background for their talks are available here.