NTI | bio, in partnership with 80,000 Hours, CBWNet, the iGEM Foundation, the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), the International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science (IBBIS), the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation, is excited to announce the winners of the ninth annual Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition:
Students and early-career professionals from 19 countries across five continents entered the 2025 competition. The challenge called for innovative papers on how to define “biological weapons” in today’s ever evolving biothreat landscape. An international panel of judges evaluated the papers and chose the winning team through a three-round process. A list of this year’s judges can be found below.
In their winning paper, Redefining Biological Weapons: Expanding the BWC to Incorporate Infrastructure Harm and Cyberbiothreats, the authors argue that the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) must evolve to address emerging threats that target not only living organisms, but also critical infrastructure and digital systems. They propose policy recommendations to close oversight gaps, including expanding the definitions of biological agents and weapons to include material-degrading microbes and cyber-enabled biothreats; adopting a “functional harm” principle for oversight; integrating biosurveillance into infrastructure maintenance; strengthening cyber-biological infrastructure; and establishing an AI-powered threat forecasting platform to support proactive global biosecurity governance. They emphasize that implementing these recommendations will create needed safeguards to protect both living systems and critical infrastructure from 21st century biological risks.
Competition winners will receive travel support to attend the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva, Switzerland. They will present their paper during a UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and NTI side event, Diverse & Inclusive Engagement to Strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention on Friday, December 12th at 1:15PM – 2:45PM CEST.
In addition to the winning paper, the judges of this year’s competition also selected a runner-up from among the top-scoring papers. The authors of the runner-up paper are:
In their paper, The INTENT Framework: Operationalizing the BWC’s Definition Through Tiered Biosecurity Risk Assessment, the authors propose the INTENT Framework to address the challenges of verifying compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention’s (BWC) intent-based definitions of biological weapons amid evolving biotechnologies. The framework introduces four key indicators, Technical Risk, Executive Oversight, Negligence, and Transparency, to assess biosecurity risks in biological research and production facilities. By classifying facilities into four risk tiers, the framework allows for evidence-based evaluations without requiring proof of hostile intent. The authors emphasize that this approach through its tiered structure and focus on conduct, supports peaceful scientific innovation while enhancing global oversight and strengthening international biosecurity.
The Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition promotes the establishment of a global cross-sector cadre of early-career professionals dedicated to reducing catastrophic biological risks.
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NTI | bio hosts this competition to provide a platform for the next generation of global leaders in biosecurity to develop original concepts and share them with the wider biosecurity community.
NTI | bio experts contributed to the 9th Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference in Geneva.
NTI’s Global Biological Policy and Programs team will host two side events at the Sixth Session of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
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