The International Forum for Biophilosophy was established in Belgium by Royal Decree in 1988 to promote the quality of the interaction between science, philosophy, industry, politics and the public Guido Van Steendam is professor in ethics of science and philosophy of health care at the KULeuven, university Leuven. He is organizing research on science dynamics, ethics of science, the development of ethical tools. He is the research director of IFB and actively involved in the establishment of networks.

Achievements

•		author of Directory and Compendium on Biomedical Ethics in Europe, published by the EC, Luxemburg, 1993. (Funding: EU, contract PSS*0310) (1990-1993).
•		organizer and co-organizer (together with Hungarian Academy of Sciences) of several workshops and conferences on science policy in Budapest. (Funding: EU, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (1992-98)
•		scientific coordinator of FASTER, responsible for the workpackage that analyses viable network architectures. (Funding, EU, SAS6-CT-2003-510151) (2004)
•		coordinator of the Sustour project to train project officers in the ministry of the environment, Slovak Republik. (Funding, Flemish government, SLK/008/04) (2004-2005)
•		coordinator of Clemit: ethics of new medical technologies, with special focus on developing a network in Central Europe. (Funding, EU, contract SAS6-CT-2003-003286) (2004-2007)
•		participant in several research projects, workshops, conferences.

Staff
9

Collaborators
This project may benefit from the contribution by
- Wim Pinxten
- Dustin Simenon

Resources useful for the project

•		the methodology developed to compile the EU Directory and Compendium (1993). Methodologies will be updated to internet and new technologies.
•		the development of a central European network on medical ethics in the context of the CLEMIT project (2004-2007). This will provide a further basis for identifying and contacting specialists in Biotechnology ethics.

Special assignments
Enhancing the link between Research and Teaching ethics of biotechnology, by exploring how teaching should not only be seen as a way to communicate the results of research, but also as an input and source of research. Or, how the fact that courses in ethics are interactive is not only a pedagogical tool, but also a tool to enrich research itself.