News
The 15th meeting of the International Biosafety Working Group (IBWG) - Nashville, TN, October 7, 2007
The International Biosafety Working Group (IBWG) held its 15th meeting in conjunction with the 50th Biological Safety Conference of the American Biological Safety Association (ABSA). The meeting welcomed observers from the CDC, OLS, ICLS, ABSA and China-CDC. The IBWG welcomed a new member organization, the International Society for Biosafety Research (ISBR). The Group received updates from each of the member associations and discussed the role of the IBWG to ensure the sharing of best practices and the provision of materials and training as well as the potential development of a mentoring program. As a result of these discussions, the IBWG is exploring and evaluating the development of training tools that will provide biosafety coordinator's worldwide with the basic tools and skills to perform their everyday work. The members are encouraged to seek opportunities to develop these areas within their Associations and share experience with parts of the world who are developing their biosafety and biosecurity systems. The availability of these tools in various languages was raised and an effort to provide some of the current resources in Spanish is being undertaken. The member organizations were encouraged to seek opportunities to promote the IBWG by using the promotional tools at their events. The IBWG also thanked Dr. T.M. Chua for his great contribution to the IBWG during his term as Co-chair over the past few years and welcomed Leila Oda from ANBio as the new Co-chair.
The International Biosafety Working Group Spring Meeting - 03-30-2007 in Heidelberg Germany
The International Biosafety Working Group held it's spring meeting in conjunction with the 10th annual Conference of the European Biosafety Association. The meeting began with a small reception funded by the UK Health Protection Agency with invited guests from Russia, FUSs, Sudan and International Society for Biosafety Research and International Council for Life Sciences.
The members welcomed observers from, ISBR, ICLS, and the Global Parternship Program of Foreign Affairs Canada. The Group received updates from each of the member associations and discussed progress towards the development of the IBWG to lead in the realm of biosafety and research, guidance and public policy, expert advice and support through outreach and partnering arrangements, and training and competency. Linked to this is the role of the IBWG to ensure the sharing of best practices and the provision of materials and training. As a result of these discussions, the IBWG is exploring and evaluating the development of a training tools that will provide biosafety coordinator's worldwide with the basic tools and skills to perform their everyday work. The members are encouraged to seek opportunities to develop these areas within their Associations and share experience with parts of the world who are developing their biosafety and biosecurity systems.
The International Biosafety Working Group Spring Meeting
 The International Biosafety Working Group held it's spring meeting in conjunction with the 9th annual Conference of the European Biological Safety Assocation. The Group received updates from each of the member associations and discussed progress towards the development of a registration program for biosafety professionals. Linked to this initiative is the need to provide basic training for biosafety coordinators. As a result of these discussions, the IBWG is initiating the development of an interactive training program that will provide biosafety coordinator's worlwide the basic tools and skills to perform their everyday work.
Elections were also held and we are pleased to welcome Heather Sheeley as our new co-chair of the IBWG. Heather has contributed to the work of the IBWG since it's creation and we look forward to the next two years under her leadership with Dr. TM Chua. Special thanks to Helmut Bachmayer for his work over the past years in enabling the activities of the IBWG.
International Seminar on Biosecurity and Biosafety
On April 19 and 20, 2006, the International Council for the Life Sciences together with NP TEMPO, a non-commercial partnership of 17 Russian organizations representing leading scientific centres in the field of microbiology, held an international seminar for biosecurity experts from G-8 countries. The event, entitled Biosafety and Biosecurity: an Agenda for Global Action was held at the I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy with support from the Government of Canada's Foreign Affairs Department and the International Science and Technology Centre. Experts from the G-8 countries focused discussion on biological risks, global standards and international cooperation ahead of the 2006 G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg in July.
Moscow Seminar Recommendations [ Download PDF ]
For more information visit NP TEMPO.
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