EBSA voices

The Convention on Biological Diversity came into force on 29 December 1993, but it has never stood still. Through its Conference of the Parties and supporting scientific bodies, the Convention keeps watch over how its 196 Parties are putting it into practice, and tracks new scientific, technological and policy developments around the world. That means looking ahead too - to synthetic biology, digital sequence information and other frontier biotechnologies - so the Convention can keep pace with the issues it was set up to handle. As far back as 2010, the Parties invited governments, organisations and other interested groups to share information on synthetic biology with the Convention's scientific advisory body, while urging caution about releasing any synthetic life, cell or genome into the environment.

Across Europe, the biosafety community is increasingly being drawn into conversations that extend well beyond the laboratory.

Vaccine manufacturing sits at the intersection of many of these conversations. It combines the need to handle potentially hazardous biological materials with the equally stringent requirement to produce safe, high-quality medicinal products for human use.