A seminar on Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Engineered Plants was held on July 13-14, 2012 at BRAC-CDM, Rajendrapur, Gazipur, Bangladesh under the auspices of the South Asia Biosafety Program in collaboration with BARC and the DoE, Bangladesh. USAID also helped fund the workshop. Speakers included Dr. Andrew Roberts of the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment (CERA), Dr. Raymond Layton, Pioneer Hybrid, Dr. Imdadul Hoque, Professor, Botany, DU, and Mr. Sulaiman Haider (DoE). Participants included Scientists from Universities, Agricultural Research Institutes as well as 2 representatives from Medical Biotechnology from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the country.

Over the two day deliberations, participants did exercises on what constitutes risk in GE plants and whether these can be mitigated before permission for environmental release of a GE plant is authorized.