#15 Here’s to the next 15 years!
This post marks the digital end of the current campaign before it has its final act at our general meeting on 23 October 2023.
Looking at the pictures from the past posts, the past 15 years seem like a long time. Looking at the topics which have lost little of their relevance, they tend not to be. So, what could we say about the next 15 years? If one is honest, most forecasts about the future are rather embarrassing for the maker once future has become the present.
Therefore, we would like to keep it with Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.”
In view of the current news, many people find it difficult to maintain or even to develop a positive vision of the future. Sometimes this worry is so deep-seated that no future at all is seen. But inevitably, there will be a future. It is therefore up to us not only to explore, invent, and realise a path to a tomorrow worth living but also to show this path. We advocate seeing biotechnology not purely as a problem solver for impending disasters, but as a key tool to enable a better future. In the next 15 years, biotechnology will make products better, people healthier, and our economy more circular. Properly envisioned, circular bioeconomy is not a band-aid for past generations’ mistakes, but a hopeful promise to future generations.
Of course, we should always keep in mind that this more hopeful future will not happen on its own: every individual is needed, but also political will and cooperative collaboration. Consequently – although we cannot predict the future – we are convinced the central CLIB values will still be important in 15 years: trustworthy partners, a lot of innovative spirit, and the necessary courage to change!
