United Kingdom Government Seeks to Update Biological Security Strategy

The Biological Security Strategy of the United Kingdom (UK) aims to protect the UK from domestic and global biological risks as well as threats.  The new Biological Security Strategy aims to protect the UK from a range of biological threats, including emerging infectious diseases and potential misuse by hostile actors.  The new Strategy will incorporate learnings from the recent response to COVID-19, consider evolving priorities since the pandemic, and reflect the rapid advances in science and technology across all aspects of biological security.   

The UK Government has initiated a Call for Evidence from health and security experts to ensure that its new Biological Security Strategy uses an evidence-based policy, and that the best minds in the field provide rich insights and challenge pre-existing conceptions that may negatively affect the formulation of the new Strategy.  The Call for Evidence will seek feedback on specific biological security risks from experts including those with a background in biological engineering, biological security, contingency planning, and other related technical fields.

The focus areas of this Call for Evidence include:

• A major health crisis, such as pandemic influenza, non-influenza infectious outbreaks or new infectious disease;
• Antimicrobial resistance;
• A deliberate biological attack by state or non-state actors;
• Animal and plant diseases, which themselves can pose risks to human health;
• Accidental release, such as the escape of smallpox or foot and mouth disease from insecure labs as well as dual-use research of concern, where life science research is misapplied to do harm.

For information on how to respond to this Call for Evidence or on other opportunities in the UK defense and security sectors, please contact PJ Menner at the U.S. Embassy London via PJ.Menner@trade.gov.