Brief Description:
Establishing a strong biosafety and biosecurity culture is one of the fundamental risk management principles for an organization working with biological materials. Such a culture influences the attitudes, approaches, and commitment of individuals at all levels in the organization. The strength of an organization’s biosafety and biosecurity culture is based on how biosafety, and biosecurity are perceived, valued, prioritized, and integrated.
The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture are the conveners of an International Working Group on Strengthening the Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences. This is a community of practice comprised of representatives of governments, academia, industry, DIY Bio and non-governmental organizations; and professional, international, and intergovernmental organizations, using crowdsourcing to develop guiding principles and educational/training resources to support and promote a culture of global biosafety, biosecurity, ethical, and responsible conduct in the life sciences. It is based on the culture model and assessment methodology developed by the International Atomic Energy Association for the nuclear safety and security culture. The Group conducts periodic webinars on the culture of biosafety, biosecurity, and responsible conduct and shares information and associated materials on members’ websites and in their training and educational activities.
NATURE OF ASSISTANCE:
Development and promotion of guiding principles and training resources to strengthen the global biosafety and biosecurity culture and responsible conduct in the life sciences. Some of the materials developed by the International Working Group (IWG):
• In 2019: The Guide to Training and Information Resources on the Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences, available at: https://absa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CULTURE_TRAINING_CATALOGUE.pdf.
• In 2020: The Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences -- (Self) Assessment Framework, also available online, in French and English, on the American Biological Safety Association International website at:
https://www.biosecuritycentral.org/resource/training-materials/culture-o...
(The self-assessment framework) and accompanied by a data collection tool:
https://absa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Culture_of_Biosafety-Biosecu...
The tool is also posted to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Website
at: https://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/.
Benefits of conducting such assessments include gaining and sharing an understanding of how basic assumptions influence behaviors and performance as they relate to biosafety and biosecurity; providing information on behaviors that contribute to or undermine biosafety and biosecurity; and gaining and understanding of the impact of culture on organizational performance in order to take meaningful action through a corrective action plan.
To join this IWG on Strengthening the Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in Life Sciences and to leverage its members’ expertise to assess the organizational culture using the framework developed by this community, send emails to the points of contact of this offer.
SPECIFIC COUNTRIES OF INTEREST OR OTHER RELEVANT CRITERIA FOR ASSISTANCE: Developing countries
