80 questions for UK biological security.

Multiple national and international trends and drivers are radically changing what biological security means for the United Kingdom (UK). New technologies present novel opportunities and challenges, and globalisation has created new pathways and increased the speed, volume and routes by which organisms can spread. The UK Biological Security Strategy (2018) acknowledges the importance of research on biological security in the UK. Given the breadth of potential research, a targeted agenda identifying the questions most critical to effective and coordinated progress in different disciplines of biological security is required. We used expert elicitation to generate 80 policy-relevant research questions considered by participants to have the greatest impact on UK biological security. Drawing on a collaboratively-developed set of 450 questions, proposed by 41 experts from academia, industry and the UK government (consulting 168 additional experts) we subdivided the final 80 questions into six categories: bioengineering; communication and behaviour; disease threats (including pandemics); governance and policy; invasive alien species; and securing biological materials and securing against misuse. Initially, the questions were ranked through a voting process and then reduced and refined to 80 during a one-day workshop with 35 participants from a variety of disciplines. Consistently emerging themes included: the nature of current and potential biological security threats, the efficacy of existing management actions, and the most appropriate future options. The resulting questions offer a research agenda for biological security in the UK that can assist the targeting of research resources and inform the implementation of the UK Biological Security Strategy. These questions include research that could aid with the mitigation of Covid-19, and preparation for the next pandemic. We hope that our structured and rigorous approach to creating a biological security research agenda will be replicated in other countries and regions. The world, not just the UK, is in need of a thoughtful approach to directing biological security research to tackle the emerging issues.

Cyber-Biosecurity Risk Perceptions in the Biotech Sector.

The expanding digitization of the biological sciences places greater value on the data generated, information extrapolated and knowledge gained. Failing to protect data will affect a company or country's ability to position itself optimally in the forthcoming fourth industrial revolution. Further, more reliance on automation, distribution, and outsourcing in biotechnology makes its infrastructure a target. The equipment and service providers that drive physical research and development are also all connected online. Failing to protect these resources from intrusion increases the risk of accidental or deliberate harm, for example by the loss of control over biological products. Robust cybersecurity measures are therefore critical for both securing the data generated by the biotechnology sector as well as securing key infrastructure. Cyber-biosecurity is emerging multidisciplinary field that combines cybersecurity, biosecurity, and cyber-physical security as relates to biological systems (Murch et al., 2018). To better identify the perceived risks at the interface between cybersecurity and biosecurity, Biosecure conducted a pilot study that surveyed the opinions of a discrete set of international field leaders in biotechnology and cybersecurity. The survey was carried out online from October-November 2017. Key findings of the survey showed that cyber-biosecurity risks were considered to be difficult to characterize due to variations in types of threats, targets and potential impacts, and compounded by a notable variation between the level of sophistication or maturity of mitigation and response measures. Further research is therefore necessary bringing together the different communities focusing on these issues to develop a common language, better define the threats and discuss potential ways forward in addressing risks.