Projects / Current Projects

Neither safety nor security without cooperation. Control measures for biological high risk research in European Union states

Project Period: May 2009 - April 2011
Funding: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung
Project officer: Anna Zmorzynska

Our Research Group has received funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for a two-year project to examine and compare control, security as well as safety measures applicable in European high containment laboratories. The project which started in June 2009 will identify and analyse existing legislation at the national and EU level and look at the implementation at the local level, in the laboratories. The project will address three main questions: 1) How effective are the existing accreditation and control measures for biological high risk research within the different EU states? 2) How must these existing measures be improved to reliably prevent the proliferation of potential biological weapons agents? 3) What lessons can be learned from the national experiences with accreditation and control systems for such systems at the EU and international level? The principal researcher for this project is Anna Zmorzynska.