HEARTS

Winner of the 2024 call for expressions of interest.

In the context of the deployment of a circular bioeconomy, HEARTS project will implement the immersion of project members into the real-life environment of public research laboratories and stakeholders engaged in R&D in the field of bioengineering.

Working as close as possible to the grass-roots of bioengineering, the project aims to develop five lines of investigation, each of which will probe the spectrum of bioeconomy visions that are upheld by the different stakeholders of the B-BEST programme. The lines of investigation are:

• A philosophic approach to artificial living organisms. This will involve the Cellular Organisation (CO) concept.
• An ethical and axiological approach that will question the green economy/artificial life paradigm.
• A societal approach that will focus on their social responsibility of bioengineers (or “life engineers”).
• A regulatory and legal approach to the management of genetically modified microorganisms (GMO) (Siatka, 2017).
• A global approach designed to draw together the findings of the previous four lines of investigation and provide conclusions relating to dominant visions of the circular bioeconomy.

This “upstream to downstream” strategy is designed to accompany bioengineers working in the B-BEST programme, following their apprehension of the impacts of the circular bioeconomy on representations of contemporary society.
The main goal of HEARTS project is to deploy a transdisciplinary strategy that will provide different B-BEST researchers and stakeholders with the opportunity to ponder societal questions related to the modification of living microorganisms for the purposes of bioresource valorisation.

Project lifetime:
 

2024 - 2027

Scientific manager:
 

Vincent Gregoire-Delory (Institut catholique de Toulouse)