Dear Colleague,

The symposium VALDOR 2009 will take place in Stockholm on June 8-11, 2009. The VALDOR symposia are arranged to support the development of transparent risk management. Through the four symposia that have been held since the start in 1999, a forum for the discussion about risk assessment and risk management has been created which is much appreciated among the participants.
In 2009 we celebrate the VALDOR ten year anniversary.

VALDOR, meaning VALues in Decisions On Risk, takes 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.

The symposium will address theory and overall approaches as well as practical 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. VALDOR 2009 has four areas in focus: Nanotechnologies, Biotechnology, Security and Nuclear waste management.

In addition there are cross-cutting themes: 1) The interface between risk assessment and risk management - the role of expertise, 2) The role of risk perception and value judgement in risk management, 3) Risk management and democracy – the role of public participation, and 4) The precautionary principle. We believe that the combination of areas in focus with cross-cutting themes will be fruitful for innovative discussions over disciplinary boarders.

Abstracts can now be submitted and you can also register for the conference!

We hope you will participate and we are looking forward to welcoming you to Stockholm in June 2009!