Addis Ababa — The Network of African Academies of Science (NASAC), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) are organizing an Expert Workshop on Agricultural Biotechnology. The workshop, which will bring together leading African and European scientists and policy-makers in the field, will be held at the United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 25 and 26 February 2014.

The world continues to face major problems in aiming to deliver food security at a time of increasing pressures from climate change, population growth, and economic instability. The production of more food, more sustainably, requires the development of crops that can make better use of limited resources - and this includes harnessing the potential of biotechnology.

The organisers of this meeting aim to support the discussion and sharing of some of the examples of advancing science that can contribute to agricultural innovation, with particular regard to genetic modification and to the new breeding techniques. The objective in planning this meeting has been to bring together leading African and European scientists and policy-makers to examine collectively these directions in science and innovation, to discuss how they may contribute to agreed societal priorities and how better linkages can be developed between academies of science and their policy audiences in order to facilitate the use of robust evidence, based on better mutual understanding of how science can inform policy.