Responsibilities or Requirements: Framing Dual Use Issues for Scientific Engagement

INTRODUCTION Efforts to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons or bioterrorism face an increasingly complicated landscape characterized by rapid scientific and technological progress, growing global diffusion of research capacity, and an array of stakeholders with important potential roles. In 2002, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) introduced the concept of a “web of prevention” to underscore the need for a comprehensive and coordinated strategy that could engage gather the many communities necessary to address the challenges (1). The scientific community, broadly defined to encompass the many fields beyond biology that now make up the life sciences research enterprise, is recognized as essential to the success of any strategy. This is particularly true for addressing what has come to be called“dual use” research, which is undertaken for beneficial purposes but has the potential to be misused to cause deliberate harm (2–5). Programs for “scientific engagement” have expanded in the last decade to reflect this recognition and policy attention.