Enhancing Transparency for Bioscience Research and Development

Rapid advances in modern bioscience and biotechnology are providing researchers with powerful new tools to drive breakthroughs in human health, climate resilience, and economic development. However, these advances are also accompanied by risks of deliberate misuse. The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)—now in its 50th year—embodies the global norm against biological weapons development and use and is the main international treaty that guards against these risks. While vital, the BWC is constrained by a lack of robust mechanisms for assessing compliance. Now is the time to address this gap by taking action to enhance transparency in life science research. Transparency can build trust between nations, increase the opportunity cost of developing biological weapons, and strengthen capabilities to detect covert biological weapons programs. To enhance transparency in bioscience research and development and to build confidence in compliance with the BWC norm against developing and using biological weapons, this report puts forward six concrete and actionable recommendations.

This moment is marked by both the breakneck speed of life science advances and a political opening within the BWC to reopen decades-long stalled discussions on confidence-building, transparency, compliance, and verification. Governments, industry, nongovernmental organizations, and academia should work together to enhance transparency in life science research, fostering innovation and its societal benefits while also building trust that it is not being exploited to cause harm.

Key Findings: A Comprehensive Compendium of Options for Enhancing Transparency in Life Science Research

The last major global effort to identify methods and approaches to enhance transparency, VEREX, took place more than 20 years ago. Since then, major advances in bioscience, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), and related fields have created a variety of powerful new tools and capabilities that can be applied to collect and analyze data to enhance transparency. To take advantage of the opportunity presented by these developments, NTI | bio has developed a comprehensive compendium of options for enhancing transparency, which spans:

1. The collection and analysis of data through scientific, technical, and other means
2. The procedures to support the data collection and analysis
3. The institutions to house these processes

This report presents a range of options which have varying degrees of feasibility and effectiveness and are intended to support formal and informal processes to increase compliance with the BWC and strengthen the norm against biological weapons. NTI | bio encourages BWC States Parties to undertake a review, a VEREX 2.0, to formally present options for strengthening transparency measures for the Convention.  To continue driving progress on urgent biosecurity challenges, non-governmental organizations, industry, and academia are encouraged to join NTI | bio in advancing approaches that do not require United Nations endorsement or implementation.

To develop this set of options, NTI | bio conducted research, held several expert interviews, and convened an in-person workshop that included an international group of more than 30 participants with expertise in the BWC, bioscience and biotechnology research and development, biosecurity, and international security.

Recommendations

BWC States Parties have a critical window of opportunity to take concrete steps toward enhancing transparency and building confidence in compliance with the norm against biological weapons development. Drawing from the comprehensive set of options explored in this study, the report authors recommend six actions that are likely to be practical and effective.

1. Define a clear threat model to inform BWC enhanced transparency measures: Design a threat model, which can evolve with ongoing advances in bioscience and biotechnology, that defines the scope of key threat scenarios associated with biological weapons development programs.
2. Explore open-source data collection and AI analysis: Evaluate the potential of publicly available information collection and AI analysis to detect meaningful signals of high-risk or illicit activities related to biological weapons development.
3. Conduct a pilot project to explore integration of sample and data collection during site visits: Experiment with site visit procedures that incorporate standardized sample and data collection while balancing intellectual property protection with transparency.
4. Strengthen BWC confidence-building measures: Strengthen and modernize the confidence-building measures process to make it a more effective transparency tool.
5. Develop a joint assessment process to assess BWC compliance: Enable States Parties to demonstrate and assess compliance through a structured, standardized, and internationally recognized process.
6. Strengthen the BWC Implementation Support Unit to lay the groundwork for establishing a Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Organization: States Parties should take a series of intermediate steps to strengthen the BWC Implementation Support Unit and other BWC-linked structures.