NTI | bio partners with Wellcome Trust and the World Economic Forum to host meeting on Biosecurity Innovation and Risk Reduction

NTI | bio partnered with Wellcome Trust and the World Economic Forum to convene leading experts in the fields of synthetic biology, virology, genomics, bioethics, security, public health, and risk to identify and develop novel approaches to advance technical innovations to reduce biological risks associated with advances in technology. The event included representatives from the private sector, academia, and international organizations. Charging the group to go beyond a discussion of the problems and challenges, NTI founder and Co-Chair Sam Nunn stated: “You have the opportunity to get ahead (of emerging risks) by identifying actions that can be taken – now.”

Motivated by a framing paper capturing the global biosecurity norms landscape as well as concepts to catalyze ideas for the future, the meeting focused on three areas of opportunity:

• Stakeholder-driven risk reduction, to include incentives
  and recommendations for public and private funders
• Research and development incentives to incorporate
  technical approaches to biosecurity
• Novel approaches to reduce emerging biological risks,
  including insurance-based mechanisms

Participants identified potential new actions and initial steps to achieve and implement them. Building on output from this meeting, NTI will convene a global group of leaders in the fall to further identify and publish international norms for reducing biological risks associated with advances in technology and recommend concrete paths to their implementation.

NTI’s participation in this effort is made possible by generous support from the Open Philanthropy Project.