Dear All
I like to start this discussion about the priority setting by a first proposal
1. Risk assessment and risk management in specific receiving environments
2.  Risk assessment of living modified trees
3.  Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment;
4. Risk assessment of living modified microorganisms and viruses
5. Risk assessment living modified organisms for production of pharmaceutical and industrial products

to 1. LM crops but in the future possibly also LM animals and microorganisms shall be assessed taking into account the receiving environment. It may be very helpful to have some guidance how to choose the relevant receiving environments, which are the criteria etc., because until now there is no agreed concept.
to 2.  there are a number of field trials underway. Trees as perennial species deserve some additional attention. In addition such a guidance has been proposed with decision IV/11 by COP/MOP4 in Bonn.
to 3. without good and reliable monitoring data we will never be able to decide on possible longterm effects. Additional guidance could help to develop hints how a pragmatic monitoring design could look like and how it could  be implemented.
to 4. LM microorganisms and viruses are very different in their biology, possibilities of spread etc. than plants or animals. The "translation" of Annex III into guidance for an ERA of microorganisms and viruses could be very helpful.
to 5. PMI (plant made industrials) and PMP (plant made pharmaceuticals) may have traits very new for the plant based food webs and interactions. A comparative approach may not be possible. There are developments under way to use plants for very different purposes to substitute fossil fuels and to use plants as intelligent "fermenters" for complex nature-derived pharmaceuticals.In the concepts of a knowledge based bioeconomy these approaches are quite high on the agenda.

best regards
Beatrix

Many thanks Beatrix's start.

I would propose a similar set of priority:
1)Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment
2)“Co-existence” between LMOs and non-LMOs in the context of small scale farming
Again it is an important topic for biodiversity and sustainability in small scale farming system.
3) Risk assessment and risk management in specific receiving environments
4) Risk assessment of living modified plants for biofuels
Biofuel plants get their role in sustainable development and have huge potentials for application.
5)Risk assessment of living modified organisms produced through synthetic biology
Sythetic biology is another hot topic after the era of genetic engineering. It provides great opportunity and also huge risks.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF LETICIA PASTOR CHIRINO, CUBA

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I consider that one of the topics we must focus on is precisely the development of guidance on Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment as the previous colleagues said. This topic goes beyond the identification and detection of LMOs. I would like to emphasize that we are talking about LMOs that have been placed on the market 10 years ago or maybe more, so some of them could be giving us a few signs of appearances of medium or long- term effects. A coherent monitoring system for the timely detection of the possible adverse effects of such organisms is a priority at this time, because the appearance  of proved impacts can lead us to the reformulation of national and international policies and at the same time, it allows us to direct our next steps in matter of risk management measures.

I agree with the rest of the priority setting expressed by my colleagues, specially the one regarding microorganisms and viruses.

Dear All,
my name is Andreas Heissenberger an I work for the Environment Agency Austria in th area of risk assessment and monitoring of GMOs.
In principle I agree with the topics Beatrix put for discussion but would propose a different ranking (with priority from 1-5) and suggest to include uncertainty analysis, as this a field which definetly needs more consideration in the future:
1. LM Trees
2. LM micro-organisms and viruses
3. R.a. and r.m. in specific receiving environments
4. Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment
5. Uncertainty analysis


best regards
Andreas