Strengthening Safety and Security of Biological Research Globally in Support of the Biological Weapons Convention

This project seeks to support and promote global best practices in biorisk management and research oversight, thereby supporting States Parties’ national Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) implementation efforts. By working with policymakers, senior practitioners, laboratory operations and maintenance (O&M) personnel, and stakeholders across the research lifecycle, EBRC will endeavor to build community to support i) O&M for high containment labs, ii) review and oversight of high-risk research, and iii) the growth of empirically-based biosafety practices.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) bans the development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons and stands as a cornerstone of the global conviction that the use of biological agents and toxins as a weapon of war by anyone at any time is unacceptable. Underlying this norm is States Parties’ national implementation of the convention, ensuring that laws, policies, and practices safeguard the use of biology in their territories. Implementation of the BWC is an urgent priority to ensure biological research is done for peaceful purposes that do not have detrimental impacts. Gaps in biorisk management and research oversight must be addressed to avoid laboratory incidents and to enable the international research community to continue advancing biological knowledge and understanding safely and securely. Biology is not bound by borders, thus biorisk management gaps can only be meaningfully addressed by bringing stakeholders—such as researchers, biosafety professionals, and policy makers— from around the globe together to share perspectives, priorities, best practices, and lessons learned. In doing so, we can work together productively to shape policies and practices across international boundaries to enable safe and secure research across the globe.

To support the development of international guidelines, standards, and practices for biologically safe and secure research, the EBRC will coordinate several activities in collaboration with members of the international research community:

  • Support the development and implementation of robust operations and management policies and practices in Latin American high containment laboratories
  • Identify, assess, and promote practical review and oversight policies and practices for potentially dangerous gain of function research
  • Coordinate research work and knowledge sharing of applied biosafety research to strengthen the basis for evidence-based biosafety and biosecurity.

Global needs for biosafety and biosecurity are constantly changing as new discoveries and techniques are developed in engineering biology. International collaboration and an evolving evidence-based approach are key to ensuring that biological research continues to provide maximum societal benefits while continuing to operate with extremely minimal risks. This project as with other security-focused work at EBRC continues to support the construction and maintenance of a robust, systematic, and internationally interconnected biosafety and biosecurity landscape.

Project Objectives

  • Support continued improvement of operations and maintenance practices and policies at high containment laboratories working with dangerous infectious pathogens through technical guidance and training in addition to targeted engagement with policymakers to support policy development and prioritization.
  • Engage a cohort of international expert stakeholders to support both bottom-up and top-down approaches to the review and oversight of potentially dangerous gain of function research globally.
  • Convene and coordinate meetings and research on the global biosafety research agenda to promote data-informed best practices for biorisk management.

Workshops

High Containment Laboratory Operations and Maintenance Guidebook Workshop POSTPONED
TBD | Buenos Aires, Argentina

High containment lab facilities are becoming more common in Latin America as domestic capabilities in disease diagnostics, research, and public health surveillance increase. Maintaining biocontainment in these facilities relies on a variety of specialized systems and equipment. Ensuring personnel have the training and resources needed to operate & maintain this equipment is essential to prevent accidental or deliberate release of high risk biological agents from high containment labs.

This two-day workshop will bring together experts from across Latin America working in high containment lab O&M to contribute to a guidebook on O&M best practices and resources; establish a community of practice for collective problem solving and information sharing; and identify areas of need for further support of high containment lab O&M.

ABOUT

This project is funded via a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.

Webinar – Relational Governance for Engineered Organisms

In this lecture, Riley Taitingfong, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Arizona, will focus on practical tools and frameworks for supporting Indigenous governance of emerging biotechnologies, with particular relevance for engineered microbes for environmental release (EMERs). Drawing on concepts and strategies from the Indigenous Data Sovereignty movement, Taitingfong will show how governance approaches rooted in connectivity, reciprocity, and responsibility to place can translate into concrete guidance for actors exploring the use of engineered microbes in the environment. By situating EMERs within relational governance approaches, Taitingfong asks how decision-making processes can align scientific objectives with local priorities while accounting for power imbalances and honoring long-held relationships to lands, waters, and more-than-human kin. Taitingfong will introduce tools to demonstrate how Indigenous governance frameworks can be operationalized in practice. Together, we will consider how these tools offer pathways for integrating relational accountability into EMER development and supporting community-driven approaches to biotechnology.

EBRC Sci Comm Workshop Series: “Communicating Science Effectively”

EBRC is excited to host “Communicating Science Effectively”, an interactive, virtual training series open to all EBRC members! Over the course of three 60-minute sessions, participants will learn research-based theories underlying effective science communication and have the opportunity to apply these principles through hands-on instruction, practice, and feedback. The series will culminate with an in-person session during the EBRC Annual Meeting (register here!). This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in leveling up their communication and engagement skills!

Because the sessions build on one another, participants are expected to attend all three virtual sessions.

Questions? Please feel free to reach out to Julietta (julietta@ebrc.org)!

Register Here

 

Workshop Series Schedule

Session 1: Sci Comm 101 (virtual) | Friday, March 20, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)

During this initial session, participants will consider the aim of their communication and go through the basics of effective science communication.

Objectives include:

  • Learn how to define clear communication goals and align messaging with desired outcomes;
  • Explore strategies for identifying and understanding your audience’s background, expectations, and needs; and
  • Understand the basics of ensuring your key points are communicated clearly.

Participants will also engage in interactive discussions to share their communication and engagement goals, challenges, fears, and opportunities.

 

Session 2: Panel Discussion – Applying Sci Comm in Practice (virtual) | Thursday, April 16, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)

During this session, a panel of Sci Comm experts across a variety of fields will share their experiences.

Discussion topics include:

  • Finding and knowing your audience—Panelists will share practical strategies for identifying target audiences, understanding their values and needs, and building meaningful connections.
  • The importance of the messenger—Panelists will discuss how credibility, trust, and identity influence how science is received.
  • Creating and delivering effective messages—Panelists will discuss examples of what makes a compelling story.
    Working with journalists, press officers and professional societies

Participants will additionally be invited to actively engage with the panel, ask questions, share perspectives, and seek expert advice relevant to their own science communication experiences.

 

Session 3: Crafting your message (virtual) | Friday, May 15, 2026 (3 PM ET/12 PM PT)

This final session will focus on best practices for communicating evidence and strategies for addressing issues such as uncertainty, biases and presenting numerical information

Objectives include:

  • Best practices for communicating evidence and numbers: what are the issues with using words without numbers, the need to communicate absolute risks, natural frequencies, etc;
  • Learn how to clearly communicate different types of uncertainty;
  • Align uncertainty information to the decision context; and
  • Understand how mental models and cognitive biases may affect people’s understanding of evidence and consider how to use transformative explanations and other communication tactics.

 

Final presentations (in-person) | June 3, 2026 (at the EBRC Annual Meeting)

Participants will prepare a Sci Comm product tailored to a specific audience, topic, and engagement platform (e.g., an Instagram live stream, interview for a local newspaper, a Bluesky thread) to be presented during a live, interactive session at the EBRC Annual Meeting open to all meeting attendees.

This session will offer a unique opportunity for participants to put the skills and strategies learned throughout the workshop series into practice and engage in meaningful dialogue with a broader scientific community.

 

Mia Negru

Mia Negru serves as Executive Director of Life With Artificials, a social engagement platform exploring how humans and intelligent systems coexist in areas such as health, work, governance, and everyday life. Through public dialogue, cross-sector partnerships, and policy-oriented initiatives, she works to connect researchers, innovators, regulators, and citizens—ensuring that emerging technologies evolve in alignment with democratic values, ethical principles, and social responsibility.

She studied International Business and Politics at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), where she built a solid understanding of regulatory systems, institutional decision-making, and public–private collaboration in complex policy environments.

Her passion for frontier innovation led her to engage with programs at Singularity University, deepening her focus on artificial intelligence, robotics, and synthetic biology and their long-term societal implications.

Lasse Helmer Pederson

Lasse Helmer Pedersen is a hands-on technologist and strategic advisor working at the intersection of advanced AI, engineering and health technology. As Strategic Advisor on technology for Zibra Holding ApS, he supports a portfolio of tech ventures with AI strategy, innovation governance, and the design of resilient technology ecosystems. Previously, Lasse served as CTO at MindFuture, where he helped build an innovation hub around real-world, responsible applications of artificial intelligence. A long-time practitioner, he has led technology, product development, and IT organizations across telecoms, infrastructure, and software, giving him a practical understanding of how to move complex technologies from concept to deployment at scale.

Lasse is part of the core team in Life with Artificials, contributing strategic advice on how humans and AI can coexist in ways that are safe, beneficial, and aligned with societal values. He is particularly interested in how cutting-edge AI can accelerate engineering biology and health tech while maintaining robustness, security, and public trust.