Responsible Innovation in Plant Breeding: The Case of Hybrid Potato Breeding: Plants

As an emerging innovation, hybrid potato breeding raises high expectations about faster variety development and clean true potato seed as a new source of planting material. Hybrid breeding could, therefore, substantially contribute to global food security and other major sustainable development goals. However, its success will not only depend on the performance of hybrid potato in the field, but also on a range of complex and dynamic system conditions. This article is based on a multidisciplinary project in which we have studied the innovation dynamics of hybrid potato breeding and explored how these dynamics may shape the future of hybrid potato. Inspired by the approach of responsible innovation, we closely involved key players in the Dutch and international potato sector and other relevant actors in thinking about these potato futures. An important and recurrent theme in our work is the tension between the predominant commercial innovation dynamics in plant breeding and promises to respond to the global challenges of food security, agrobiodiversity and climate change. In this article, we, therefore, discuss responsible innovation strategies in (hybrid) potato breeding, which may help to bridge this tension and finally reflect on the implications for the field of plant breeding in general

Hybrid potato breeding: A framework for mapping contested socio-technical futures

This article characterizes the diverging expectations about hybrid potato breeding in the Netherlands. This potentially disruptive innovation for breeding new potato varieties has been subject to contested expectations, ranging from hybrid breeding amounting to nothing to it strongly upsetting the existing potato sector and bringing food security to developing countries. Literature in the sociology of expectations has highlighted that expectations are key in shaping the future of this innovation. In the case of hybrid potato breeding, these expectations are articulated in an unstructured setting, often within the walls of individual organizations. This makes an informed societal debate difficult. To aid the governance of expectations in unstructured settings, this article develops a mapping framework for expectations. Building on distinctions that emerged from the empirical material, stakeholders are positioned with respect to the expected impact of the innovation on the sector and on society. We found that stakeholders can be distributed along a clear curve that leads from low expectations for sector and society, to modest expectations for the sector and low expectations for society, to high expectations for both. This overview provides a basis for an informed societal debate and the articulation of socially robust expectations

Health technology especially for women: FemTech and the healthgap

Internationale indexen laten zien dat vrouwen wereldwijd een slechtere gezondheid hebben dan mannen en minder toegang tot gezondheidsdiensten en geneesmiddelen. Op deze kloof spelen technologieontwikkelaars in met apps, producten en diensten speciaal voor vrouwen. Apps die de ovulatie- en menstruatiecyclus bijhouden of bloedtests om hartfalen bij vrouwen beter te kunnen diagnosticeren – het zijn voorbeelden van gezondheidstechnologie speciaal voor vrouwen. Deze FemTech belooft positief bij te dragen aan de gezondheid van vrouwen en de hiaten in de medische zorg op te vullen. Kan deze gezondheidstechnologie speciaal voor vrouwen de verschillen in gezondheid en zorg tussen mannen en vrouwen verkleinen? En zo ja, hoe? Dat onderzoekt het Rathenau Instituut in dit rapport