A visit to the new BASF CropDesign facility in Ghent took place on 3rd October. More than 20 visitors from European and national Belgian Institutions and industry stakeholders were there to receive a tour of the labs and green houses and to hear from Crop Design’s CEO Wim Van Camp and BASF Vice President Matthias Meder on current innovative research in plant biotechnology, as well as EuropaBio’s Beat Spath on regulatory hurdles and opportunities in the EU.
The visit furthermore marked the 30th anniversary of the first successful introduction of a gene into a plant, enabling the starting point of genetic modification (GM). Ghent is the birth place of GM technology, and today holds the highest concentration of plant biotechnology companies in Europe. BASF is part of this top-notch-network and has recently moved its CropDesign R&D centre into a brand-new building, consisting of more than 3500sq metres of labs and offices and a high-tech rooftop greenhouse.