Project summary

This August, I am organizing at Stanford a three-day intensive workshop on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness for an audience of 20 Congressional staffers. The workshop educates staffers on biosecurity topics relevant to current legislation, and creates a community both among the staffers and between staffers and researchers, to allow for advising and dialogue as relevant issues emerge.

Crucial to maintaining this community, and growing to include staffers who were interested but unable to travel to Stanford for the workshop, I would like to organizing three events (one per quarter) in DC, to update staffers on recent developments in biosecurity-relevant research and policy priorities and to bring Bay Area-based researchers to DC to present their work to staffers and other DC-based interested parties (like the NSC and OSTP).

Project goals

-Maintain involvement and interest in a biosecurity policy community among staffers who attend the August biosecurity workshop, and provide regular updates on relevant research results and policy priorities

-Draw in additional staffers who were unable to travel or attend, and bring them up to speed on the policy interests and takeaways of the workshop attendees

-Provide a means for Bay Area-based researchers (e.g., graduate students and post-docs) working on projects with biosecurity relevance to present their findings and recommendations to policymakers in an engaged and action-oriented environment

-Develop interest in future iterations of the Stanford Biosecurity Workshop

How will this funding be used?

-Event costs (e.g., space rental, catering, printed materials)
-Travel for Bay Area-based researchers

-Staff salaries for project planning and execution, communications

-University overhead and indirect costs

What is your (team's) track record on similar projects?

The August workshop is bringing 20 Congressional staffers to Stanford for three days of intensive educational programming on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, involving 29 speakers, two field-trips, one immersive scenario exercise, nine panels, and three keynotes. This workshop builds on previous workshops on cybersecurity policy that I helped organize at Stanford, which brought in similarly-sized cohorts of Congressional staffers and of journalists (alternating years). These events continue, through a different institution at Stanford, in the form of "AI bootcamps" for Congressional staffers.

How could this project be actively harmful?

If staffers' takeaways from the events are that biosecurity risks are too great to allow ongoing biotechnology development and innovation, this would be a harmful outcome. We are purposefully crafting the messaging of the August workshop, and would maintain the messaging through these quarterly events, to avoid promoting fear and uncertainty, and instead focus on near-term policy priorities that can promote the development of a robust US-based bioeconomy while controlling security threats as much as possible and preparing for potential adverse events.

What other funding is this person or project getting?

The August workshop is receiving $198,000 from Open Philanthropy, and we have applied for renewal funding for a second workshop in 2024. These interstitial DC events have no funding at this time.