Katerina Vlantoni, PI, participated in the 10th Tensions of Europe Conference, under the theme “Technology, Environment and Resources”. It took place in the Aarhus University, Denmark, from 29 June to 1 July 2022. After two years of online academic events, it was with great pleasure for Vlantoni to participate in a conference that provided the opportunity to present our ongoing work and to discuss it with colleagues from around the world. The feedback she received has been useful as our project progresses.
The title of Vlantoni’s presentation was “Encountering the heterogeneous nature of biobanks: a taxonomy of past and current biobanking infrastructures in a national setting”. She presented the biobanking landscape in Greece and discussed the ongoing project to create a network of biobanks (BBMRI.GR). She remarked that the various collections of biospecimen in Greece are fragmented and, similarly, the approach to biobanking is fragmented as well. The heterogeneity of biobanking is not treated as such since top down approaches tend to ignore the local practices of biobanks and their origins. On the other hand, a public discussion on the ‘need’ of a national biobank has not taken place in the country. Moreover, she noted that the BBMRI.GR project did not materialize as planned. In Greece, the biobanking research does not receive regular funding by the state. Therefore, she concluded, we can identify specific choices and preferences about the ways research infrastructures are being dealt with in the state-driven research sector.
