NIH, in partnership with the New England Biological Safety Association, the Northeast Biological Safety Association, the Mid-Atlantic Biological Safety Association and the Chesapeake Area Biological Safety Association, will be holding the first in a series of public listening sessions to obtain stakeholder feedback on NIH’s effort to modernize and strengthen biosafety oversight.
Priority for this meeting will be given to stakeholders located in: ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI, NY, PA, NJ, DE, WV, MD, and Washington DC.
NIH Videocast
Draft Agenda
Listening Session 1 Draft Agenda
Meeting Flyer
Draft Introductory Slides
Draft Introduction and Context Slides
Public Comments
NIH and its partners encourage any interested individual to sign up to provide oral comments during the listening session. All comments offered at the listening session are welcome and will be considered, and feedback on the following topics are particularly encouraged.
- NIH is interested in hearing individual opinions regarding an appropriate scope for its biosafety policy. As a starting point, NIH is interested in hearing feedback on these potential options:
- Current scope of recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids plus research with other biohazards to possibly include wild type biological agents, proteins (e.g., toxins, prions), etc.
- Research with infectious microbes and hazardous biological materials
- Life sciences research
NIH welcomes individuals to offer additional options for the scope of the policy, as well.
- NIH is equally interested in hearing individual opinions on the types of research that may require less local or NIH oversight based on accrued safety data or due to oversight by other federal authorities. Examples of this type of research may include:
- Non-biomedical research with plants, agricultural animals, or certain microbes under the purview of other federal agencies such as USDA or EPA
- Clinical research under the purview of the FDA
- Other research that, based on accrued safety data, may be low risk (e.g., RG1 agents, some transgenic organisms, some expression plasmids)
NIH welcomes individuals to offer additional examples of research that may require less oversight, as well.
Registration
The listening session is open to the public and there is no cost to attend. Pre-registration is required through the submission below. When registering, please indicate whether you would like to provide oral comments. Requests to make oral comments must be received by September 29, 2025 (Speaking slots for this listening session are full as of 9/30/25)