Dear Colleague,

The next VALDOR Symposium will take place in Stockholm on May 14–18, 2006. The VALDOR Symposia are arranged
to support the further development of transparent risk
management.

VALDOR, meaning VALues in Decisions On Risk, is a much
appreciated forum for the discussion on values involved in
complex and controversial matters. We take a holistic and
democratic approach to societal decision-making in complex
issues which almost always include risk related matters. The
VALDOR arena thus becomes cross-disciplinary and includes
aspects of social and natural sciences as well as policy analysis.
We strongly believe that risk management must take an
integrated approach using not only technical risk assessment
but also learning from sociology, ethics and political science.
All these disciplines are needed in order to avoid narrow
framing and fragmentation of the decision-making basis.

VALDOR addresses theory and overall approaches as well
as practical case studies. We expect that the Symposium will
highlight problems and ways forward in the areas in focus
as well as give examples of good practice from case studies.
Different areas that at first glance may look quite different share
many problems and may benefit from exchange of experiences
and comparison of approaches. In 2006 we will focus on
nuclear waste management, electromagnetic fields, cleaning-up
and remediation of sites contaminated with chemicals and
certain topics in biotechnology. There are certainly issues of
generic relevance for all these fields such as the role of expertise,
various models for public participation, local fairness and
responsibility as well as the use of the precautionary principle.

The 2006 VALDOR will deal with practical experiences from
example areas and cross-cutting themes of general importance
in societal problems dealing with risk. Abstracts can now be
submitted to the conference secretariat and we hope you will
participate. We look forward to welcoming you to Stockholm
in May 2006!