The draft Global guidance framework for the responsible use of life sciences. Mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research (the Framework) has just been released for comments. The aim is to gather comments and feedback from all those interested in the responsible use of the life sciences.
The deadline to submit your comments is 18 March 2022.
To submit your comments, please use the WHO comment form available here. To facilitate the analysis of comments, we kindly invite you to provide your comments in English, French or Spanish. For the other WHO official languages, please contact us.
We encourage all interested stakeholders to advertise the call for comments to any individual or organization who may be interested in contributing.
Thank you very much!
Background
Research and applications in the life sciences and converging technologies contribute to a better understanding of diseases, and to the development of new drugs, vaccines, innovative treatment and medical devices. However, rapid scientific and technical changes in the life sciences raise a number of risks, including the safety and security risks of health-related research.
In the beginning of 2021, WHO Research for Health Department (RFH) initiated the development of the Global guidance framework for the responsible use of life sciences. Mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research (the Framework) to address the risks caused by accidents, inadvertent applications and deliberate misapplications with the intention to cause harm to humans, nonhuman animals and the environment. Building on pre-existing work and initiatives, the Framework aims to provide Member States and other key stakeholders guidance on values, principles, tools and mechanisms to prevent and mitigate biorisks while harnessing the power of life sciences for global health and society. In this respect, the draft Framework targets a wide range of multidisciplinary audiences at individual, institutional, national, regional and international levels.
The draft Framework was informed by three dialogues on dual-use research organized in 2020 and two consultative meetings held in 2021, which were attended by a broad range of stakeholders and experts from all six WHO regions. The draft Framework draws directly on the findings and considerations of five working groups established to provide inputs on specific themes. The draft Framework is based on the reports developed by these five working groups and build upon this work to further develop key considerations for the governance of biorisks.
Purpose of the public consultation
WHO is launching a public consultation to hear from a broad range of stakeholders, including scientists, research institutions, government officials, journals and publishers, funding donors, civil society organizations, international organizations, the private sector, interested citizens and stakeholders from all over the world to ensure that content of the draft Framework is accurate and relevant to the different contexts and needs of the audience. Inputs collected during the public consultation will be analysed and considered in the revision and finalization of the Framework.
The text will undergo editing to ensure language coherence and the graphics, boxes and tables will be redesigned. The Framework will be translated into WHO’s six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Please note that the comment form collects some personal information that is optional. This information will help us to understand who responded to this call for comments and will facilitate follow-up in case clarifications are needed on comments. The data will be securely stored as per WHO rules and policies. We will not use this information except for the purpose for which it was provided, and we will not share the information with third parties.
Contact
For any questions regarding the public consultation, please email tuerlingse@who.int.