The role of sustainability in the UK synthetic biology programme

Policy interventions in support of emerging technologies are often justified through their potential to support sustainability transitions. Synthetic biology is one such technology with potential applications across a wide range of sectors with promised sustainability benefits. Over the past decade, the field in the UK has been subject to active policy intervention and support. This article explores the role played by the sustainability agenda in policy debates and the policy mix in support of this emerging field in the UK. Through an exploratory case study approach, I describe the processes through which synthetic biology came to be the subject of policy intervention where wider sustainability goals were situated as subsidiary to the commercialisation agenda. Analysis of the policy mix reveals how this has fed through into a supply-side bias with limited consideration given to actively create or stimulate demand for sustainable synthetic biology applications. These features, combined with limited capacity for anticipation and monitoring, are likely to limit the capacity of the field to drive socio-technical transformation due to a lack of attention to policy coordination, reflexivity, and directionality.