Building trust in biotechnology starts with listening
Biotechnology can only create real societal impact if the people it aims to serve are part of the journey. Laurien Van Dyck reflects on how the Horizon Europe B-Trust project is helping researchers build trust through co-creation.
Among other things, biotechnology is helping to create more sustainable food systems, reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture, and develop innovative bio-based materials. Yet scientific breakthroughs alone do not guarantee societal impact. Even the most promising innovations can fail if the people they are designed to benefit do not trust or accept them.
That challenge lies at the heart of B-Trust, a Horizon Europe project that developed a practical co-creation program to help researchers, companies, and policymakers build trust around biotechnology innovations in the agrifood and bio-based sectors.
VIB was part of the consortium, alongside partners Flanders' FOOD, Food & Bio Cluster Denmark, Biovia, LAMA Development and Cooperation Agency, Food+i, and the public engagement specialists Alice Down the Rabbit Hole.
Now the project is coming to an end, we spoke with Laurien Van Dyck, VIB’s representative in B-Trust and portfolio manager in VIB's Grand Challenges Program. She told us why co-creation matters and how the lessons from B-Trust can help researchers develop innovations that people actually embrace.
What did the B-Trust project try to achieve?
Laurien: "The project originated from a European Commission call. They recognized that many biotechnology innovations never reach the people who could benefit from them. In agri-food especially, there is often distrust among consumers and farmers. That public attitude also influences policymakers, which can slow down innovation. The Commission wanted to understand what the main barriers to trust are and how we can address them. Together with an international consortium, we launched B-Trust to investigate those barriers and develop practical ways to overcome them."
The project revolves around co-creation. What does that mean in practice?
Laurien: "For us, co-creation means involving the people who will ultimately be affected by an innovation from the very beginning. Within B-Trust, we didn't develop solutions as an expert consortium and then present them to society. Instead, we spent a lot of time listening. We asked farmers, consumers, companies, and other stakeholders how they saw the challenges and what they believed would work. Their input shaped the recommendations."
How did you approach such a complex challenge?
Laurien: "We worked with six biotechnology case studies covering different parts of the agri-food sector. VIB played an important role in selecting and developing these cases based on real research happening at VIB, such as precision fermentation for novel food ingredients.
For each case, we first mapped the evidence-based benefits and risks from the scientific literature. Then we identified which stakeholder groups were affected, what their concerns were, and who influenced the adoption process. Those insights formed the basis for discussions with stakeholders. Together, we explored which measures could build trust and who should be responsible for implementing them. After three years, the result is a set of seven guiding trust-building principles, four clusters of concrete implementation measures, a toolbox with, for example, stakeholder mapping or engagement tools, and practical co-creation manuals for researchers, companies, and policymakers."
Why was VIB's involvement important?
Laurien: "VIB experiences the consequences of low public trust just like everyone else. We can continue developing exciting new technologies, but if they are never accepted by society, their impact remains limited. We also were the only research institute in the consortium. Our role was to contribute biotechnology case studies and to ensure the co-creation framework would actually be practical for researchers. Within the Grand Challenges Program, we already had experience with stakeholder engagement, but we were looking for a more structured framework. B-Trust helped us build that."
Can VIB researchers already use these tools?
Laurien: "For fundamental research, it's often still too early. But for anyone working in translational research, these tools can be extremely valuable. They help researchers ask important questions early on: are we actually solving a problem that people need solved? Is the solution we provide relevant and acceptable for the end-users?
The full co-creation process does require time and resources, but researchers don't have to adopt every element. Even using parts of the framework, or simply adopting the mindset of engaging end users much earlier, can make a real difference. The project officially ended in May, but all of the tools are now freely available, and both the consortium and the VIB Grand Challenges team remain available to support researchers who want to apply them."
What did you personally take away from participating in B-Trust?
Laurien: "Working in a European Coordination and Support Action was incredibly valuable. You learn from partners across Europe who work in different sectors and bring very different perspectives.
We've built a strong international network, and many of the methods developed in B-Trust are applicable far beyond agrifood. We're already exploring how they can support innovation in human health as well."
Looking ahead
B-Trust provides practical tools and a new way of thinking about innovation. By engaging stakeholders earlier, listening before developing solutions, and treating trust as an essential part of the research process, biotechnology stands a much better chance of delivering real impact.
As Laurien puts it:
“Researchers shouldn't present biotechnology as a miracle solution to every problem. It should be integrated thoughtfully into existing systems. Responsible innovation is about developing technology for the right reasons and bringing everyone along throughout the process.”
India Jane Wise
