UK government should establish a new National Centre for Biosecurity would be tasked with prevention of, and preparedness for, future large-scale and high-priority biological threats faced by the UK, regardless of their origin.
The Centre’s tasks would be:
1. Preventing and countering the threat of biological weapons from both state and non-state actors, treating them as a comparable security challenge to nuclear weapons
2. Developing effective defences to biological threats, helping bring horizon technologies (especially pathogen-blind diagnostics) to technical readiness
3. Promoting responsible biotechnology development across the world
4. Developing talent and collaboration across the UK biosecurity community, cementing the UK as a world leader in safe and responsible science and innovation.
