International Guidelines for Biosecurity Ethics

The purpose of this award is to develop a draft document containing “Ethical Guidelines for Biosecurity” to supplement existing codes and similar ethical documents that already exist for biological scientists. Such guidelines would help to strengthen the norms and practices that exist nationally and internationally against the misuse of the life sciences for biological weapons purpose, thus helping to prevent creation and use of biological weapons by non-State actors and national governments. Ultimately, such guidelines would incorporate input from the biological science community and be supported both by Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) States Parties and by relevant professional organizations.

This project will be executed in coordination with the Office of Biological Policy Staff (BPS) and WMDT. BPS manages a wide range of policy issues at the intersection of national security, public health, and science and leads U.S. Government participation in activities related to the BWC. The guideline development process would take place under the aegis of the Inter Academy Partnership (IAP), a global network consisting of 111 national science academies, which would select the technical experts to participate, in close cooperation with the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM).