| Summary: | <p>We are currently witnessing the devastating impact that natural disease outbreaks can have on our health and economy. The coronavirus pandemic highlights the need for the UK to transform its level of preparedness against biological threats.</p>
<p>But in our response, we cannot simply ‘prepare to fight the last war’ and focus on pandemic preparedness alone. We know from national security risk assessments and our Biological Security Strategy that we remain vulnerable to accidental and deliberate biological threats, which risk even worse consequences than the ongoing pandemic.</p>
<p>To achieve the level of safety that the UK public will demand in the wake of the current pandemic, we recommend the creation of a National Institute forBiological Security. The Institute would go above and beyond the new UK Joint Biosecurity Centre and would be tasked with addressing the highest priority biological threats faced by the UK, regardless of their origin.</p>
<p>Sitting adjacent to the government, the Institute would provide strategic direction over policy and technical solutions, along with national-level coordination and integration of expertise from a wide range of disciplines. It would also complement the proposed new UK ARPA by fulfilling a think-tank like function that delivers insights on new areas of opportunity and promising solutions.</p>
<p>In short, the Institute’s mission would be to ensure the biological security of the UK.</p>
<p>To achieve this, it would focus on the four areas of highest priority:</p>
<ol>
<li>Prevent and counter the threat of biological weapons from both state and non-state actors, treating them as a comparable security challenge to nuclear weapons;</li>
<li>Develop effective defences to biological threats, helping bring horizon technologies (especially pathogen-blind diagnostics) to technical readiness;</li>
<li>Promote responsible biotechnology development across the world; and</li>
<li>Develop talent and collaboration across the UK biosecurity community, cementing the UK as a world leader in science and innovation. We set out each of these four priorities in further detail below</li>
</ol>
|
|---|