The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the devastating impact of a single virus. In the coming years, humanity’s encounters with deadly pathogens are likely to rise. Encroachment on the natural environment and climate-driven alterations in ecosystems provide increasing opportunities for viruses to jump across species, including to humans. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that the field collection and experimental manipulation of potential pandemic viruses—while scientifically informative—carry the risk of accidentally seeding a pandemic.

A cross-disciplinary international forum is urgently needed to consider trends and oversight of high-risk pathogen research, and to develop responsible and sustainable research practices.  The forum is a crucial step in catalyzing an inclusive and broad discussion among scientists and other interested stakeholders of the potential benefits and risks of extremely high-risk research, and how such research may be conducted in a maximally de-risked manner.

With that urgent need in mind, a group of scientists and public health leaders, convened by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, launched a taskforce in Sept. 2022 on responsible high-risk pathogen research.

The initiative on “Creating the Framework for Tomorrow’s Pathogen Research” will help

• Create new international channels and networks on trends and oversight of high-risk pathogen research
• Develop new public documents delineating norms and standards, current practices, and resources
• Catalyze new research efforts to obtain information on high-risk pathogen collection and manipulation globally
• Develop a set of recommendations on risk assessment and mitigation for high-risk pathogen research
• Generate public awareness and new public knowledge

It will host a public meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on April 19-20, 2023. This public-facing conference will include taskforce members, policy leaders, journalists, scientists, and civic leaders, among others.

The taskforce will produce a final summary report with recommendations, along with individually prepared papers and briefings.