Side event at the Biological Weapons Convention
From 10 to 13 December 2024, Johannes Frieß and his colleagues from the Centre for Science and Peace Research (ZNF) at the Universität Hamburg were at the United Nations in Geneva. There they were able to attend the working group on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the meeting of the member states, as well as holding their own side event.
This side event focussed on the presentation of the results of the research project ‘Synthetic Bioweapons’ funded by Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung. A Delphi process was conducted with biosecurity experts to find out what the most serious biosecurity problems are with regard to bioweapons based on synthetic biology.
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. The decisive factor here is much more the intention of the actors and potentially more dangerous than bioterror is bio-error, i.e. the unintentional release of pathogens or toxins. Education and information are better than bans. This means preparing scientists for dual-use problems and potential misuse in their specialised fields at an early stage.
The ISR and the ZNF want to contribute to this by developing the DUALEX education project, 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 in the entire D-A-CH region. The aim is to train a new generation of dual-use-conscious scientists. This seems particularly important in today's world, which is characterised by rapid technological innovation and ideological division in society.
The side event was met with great interest by the audience, which was also reflected in the subsequent Q&A session and the suggestions posted via Mentimeter.