The concept of the Crucible II Project was initially endorsed in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1998, by a
diverse assembly of people with backgrounds in northern and southern private industry, government,
civil society organizations, indigenous peoples organizations, universities, multilateral institutions,
universities and the CGIAR.1 Based on their own experiences, these people felt it would be useful to
sponsor a series of informal meetings between representatives of key ¿stakeholder¿ positions in the
(very loosely defined) field of genetic resource policy. Several of these people were involved in the
first round of Crucible Group meetings held in 1992/93, which culminated in the publication of
People, Plants and Patent. While it was never ¿on the books¿ to have a second round of meetings
under the Crucible Group rubric, everyone in Uppsala agreed that developments in biotechnology and
genetic resource-related policies in the intervening 5 years called for second round of Crucible-style
talks.