Texas A&M’s Bush School Launches New Center to Combat Global Biological Threats
Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service has created a new Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Center within the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs.
The center will support efforts to ensure a world safe, secure and resilient against existential biological threats, such as severe pandemics and biological weapons, through high-impact, non-partisan research and education on relevant policy issues including preparing for future pandemics and improving security in the life sciences.
“Through the Scowcroft Institute, The Bush School has been a leader in policy on biosecurity,” said John Sherman, dean of The Bush School. “This new research capability will further grow the beneficial impact to society that The Bush School’s stellar faculty and students produce.”
The new center will be led by Dr. Gerald W. Parker, associate dean of Global One Health at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Parker is an internationally recognized expert who has testified in front of Congress several times on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. Parker serves on advisory committees or boards to the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.
“The Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Center will build upon our work to provide evidenced-based national and international policy options needed to mitigate the risks of high-consequence biological threats, whether deliberate, accidental or natural, that pose existential threats to public safety, agriculture, the economy and national security,” Parker said.
For nearly a decade, the Scowcroft Institute has advanced policy solutions aimed at safeguarding the world against biological threats. The institute’s annual summits and white papers raise awareness about the ongoing risk of pandemics, provide learning opportunities for students and identify policy priorities for improving preparedness and response capabilities. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the Scowcroft Institute helped advise on the local, state and national response. As a result, the institute is primed to host the new center, which will build upon and expand its pandemic policy program. The center will collaborate across the Texas A&M University System and with outside partners to advance policy research on priorities such as national and international biosafety standards and harnessing benefits and mitigating risks from more capable biotechnology tools.
“We created a program focused on pandemics in 2015, five years before COVID-19 struck, because we believed it was not a matter of if, but when, a pandemic would occur,” said Andrew Natsios, director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. “The action of the Board of Regents will institutionalize our program into a more permanent structure as disease threats are growing more common and more deadly.”
The center will focus on five core activities: policy research, education, convening, collaboration and technical assistance. The center’s research aims to inform government decision-makers about biological threats and policy options to address them. Education will include providing academic and experiential learning opportunities for students and the public to develop future leaders. Convening will focus on gathering experts and decision-makers from across academia, industry, government, international organizations and nonprofits to inform research projects and build the trusted relationships needed to promote effective policy solutions. This focus on collaboration will help develop these relationships into partnerships between the A&M System and public and private organizations with complementary missions in biosecurity and related fields. Finally, the center will serve as a technical resource for researchers and policymakers involved in ongoing efforts to prepare for and respond to biological crises.
The center will host its first major summit in spring 2025, in conjunction with the USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness at the School of Public Health, on the ongoing nationwide outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, in cattle. Updates about this summit and other publications and events will be provided online.