The importance of engagement and education for effective biosecurity

Achieving effective biosecurity is unlikely to be achieved solely through dependence on guards, guns and gates alone. Important as these security measures are, achieving effective biosecurity also requires a process of engagement and education on issue relating to dual use research amongst members of the community of life scientists. This chapter begins with an overview of biosecurity related engagement and education initiatives undertaken around the globe. It subsequently turns to address challenges have been encountered in efforts to promote biosecurity education and engagement internationally. In the third section, a number of reasons as to why biosecurity-related education is nonetheless important are addressed before the chapter concludes with a look at how biosecurity related engagement and education can be enhanced in the future drawing on experiences and parallel activities in the nuclear and chemical sector and looking at avenues for achieving institutional change.