Side event with ISR involvement at the working group on strengthening the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva
From 10 to 13 December, Johannes Frieß and his colleagues from the Zentrum für Naturwissenschaft und Friedensforschung (ZNF) at the University of Hamburg were at the United Nations in Geneva. They were able to attend the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Meeting of the States Parties, as well as hold their own side event.
The focus of this side event was the presentation of the results of the research project "Synthetic Bioweapons" funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research. A Delphi process was conducted with biosafety experts to identify the most serious biosafety issues related to synthetic biology-based bioweapons.
An important finding was that legal hurdles and control bodies set up to prevent the development of bioweapons can be circumvented time and again, especially by state actors. Bio-error, the unintentional release of pathogens or toxins, is potentially more dangerous than bioterror. Education and information are better than bans. This means that scientists need to be prepared at an early stage for dual-use problems and potential misuse in their areas of expertise.
The ISR and the ZNF want to contribute to this by developing the educational project DUALEX, Dual-Use Awareness and Education Expansion. This is a university curriculum aimed at students of all STEM subjects. DUALEX courses are to be established at all universities, initially in Germany and later throughout the D-A-CH region. The aim is to train a new generation of dual-use aware scientists. This seems particularly important in today's world, which is characterised by rapid technological innovation and ideological divisions in society.
The side event met with great interest from the audience, which was also reflected in the subsequent Q&A session and the suggestions posted via Mentimeter.