The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Laboratories that work with biological agents protect their staff, communities and the environment through biosafety, and protect materials and knowledge through biosecurity. This topic, studied at Biotechnology and Biosecurity, a platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), examines research environment controls and their governance: risk assessment, containment, training, culture and oversight, and how these vary across a growing and diverse global network of laboratories.
GCRI · In development · service level R0
Laboratory biosafety and biosecurity are the containment practices and the protection, control and accountability measures that keep biological materials from harming people or being misused. This page covers how laboratories are governed: risk assessment under WHO's risk-based approach, institutional biosafety committees, training, inventory accountability and incident reporting. It describes oversight, not procedures.
For lab biosafety and biosecurity, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on population density, daytime surface heat and true-colour imagery with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on West Africa; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.
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For lab biosafety and biosecurity, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on population density, daytime surface heat and true-colour imagery with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on West Africa; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
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The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Lab biosafety and biosecurity · National committee · Review year 3
| Institution A | Active | Q3 | 89 | Current |
| Research campus | Active | Q2 | 80 | Audit due |
| Biomanufacturing site | Forming | none | 56 | Support |
| Diagnostic network | Active | Q3 | 97 | Current |
Modern biosafety practice is risk-based: laboratories assess the hazards of the agents and procedures they use, and select controls accordingly. Controls combine facility design, equipment, procedures, protective equipment and training. International guidance, notably from the World Health Organization, describes this approach. Biosecurity adds controls on access to materials, inventory, personnel reliability and information.
Most laboratory incidents involve human and organizational factors rather than equipment failure alone. A culture in which staff report errors and near misses without fear is central to learning. The number of high-containment laboratories has grown worldwide, while oversight arrangements differ widely between countries, and maintenance of facilities, equipment and skilled staff over time is a recurring challenge, particularly where funding is short-term. Process safety principles from process and industrial safety engineering inform this work.
Structured methods guide laboratories in assessing and controlling the risks of their work.
Studies of reported incidents and near misses identify recurring failure modes.
Comparative research examines oversight regimes, licensing and reporting systems.
Incident reporting is incomplete, data on facilities is often confidential, and the effectiveness of controls is hard to measure directly.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Biosafety | Measures that assess and manage risks to health and the environment from living modified organisms, governed internationally by the Cartagena Protocol. |
| Biosecurity | Measures that prevent the loss, theft, misuse or deliberate release of pathogens and toxins. |
| Risk-based biosafety | Choosing laboratory controls by assessing the agent, procedure and setting, as in WHO's Laboratory Biosafety Manual. |
| Safety management system | An organized approach to managing safety, including policies, accountabilities, procedures and assurance. |
This evidence informs institutional biosafety policies, national oversight frameworks, training programmes and reporting systems. Institutional biosafety committees, laboratory directors and national authorities decide; GCRI does not inspect, certify or approve laboratories. Governance dialogue is convened by Health and Biosecurity Governance at The Global Risks Forum (GRF). Related topics are dual use and ethics, biological threats and synthetic biology; methods sit on molecular and life sciences and process and industrial safety engineering.
Published analysis on this topic is designed to carry a named subject reviewer, its references and the views of independent specialists, including biosafety professionals and those who disagree.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.