EBSA, together with Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association (A-PBA) and the American Biosafety Association (ABSA) have been summoned to join for development of a Guidance document to accompany the Laboratory Biorisk Management Standard CWA 15973:2008. The Standard was well received and the concept and ideas of this performance based management system are being adopted by laboratories around the world, however, many laboratories are seeking advice and assistance in interpreting the standard. The WHO has supported the implementation of the CWA and new tools are being developed to assess laboratories around the world according to the requirements of the standard.
The feedback from laboratories and biosafety professionals shows the next logical step will be to develop a CWA 15793:2008 "Guidance Document", a "user manual", designed to aid the end-users; laboratories and biosafety professionals. It has been proposed to follow an international consensus building process, such as CEN Workshop Agreement. A business plan. Has been proposed by a working group from the partners above and the ´kick-off´meeting will take place on 24 February, 2010 in Brussels followed by the 1st plenary meeting on 25 February. The business plan and registration information can be found on the link below., http://www.cen.eu/.../CWA15793-guide.aspx
Important Notice:
There will be a separate stakeholder meeting to explore future development of a certification scheme for certification against CWA 15793
The CWA 15793:2008 will enable organizations to do a number of things including allowing them to seek and achieve certification or verification of the biorisk management system by an independent third party.
An interest was expressed by the CEN workshop (CWA 15793:2008) in the final meeting of 2007 for the development of procedures which could form the basis of an accredited certification scheme. Such a scheme has the potential to meet, at least in part, the needs for independent assurance or oversight for a large number of stakeholders including the laboratories themselves, funding bodies, collaborating partners as well as government authorities.
Goals for the meeting include:
This stakeholder meeting is not an official CEN Workshop meeting. It will take place in Brussels on February 26, 2010 in order to take advantage of having the CEN Workshop 55 participants (Feb 24-25) already being present in Brussels.
We are still in the process of determining the exact location of this meeting. It will either take place at CEN (same location as the Workshop 55) or in one of the nearby hotels.
There is no charge associated with this meeting and it is open to all CEN Workshop 55 participants and others. If you are interested in participating in this additional meeting please RSVP Jennifer Gaudioso (Sandia National Labs) at:
The Laboratory Biorisk Management Standard CWA 15793 is free available on the CEN web site: ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/wokrshop31/CWA15793.pdf
On the page of the non-ICT CWAs: http://www.cen.eu/.../CWAsNon-ICT.aspx
The free download of this CWA has been made possible through funding provided by the Government of Canada's Global Partnership Program.