The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is looking to establish closer ties between the UK and overseas laboratories to strengthen biological security.

Natural disease outbreaks and accidental, or deliberate, release of infectious agents are risks to global security. Infectious diseases remain a major concern, and can cause social and economic disruption for millions of people.

The MOD is working to strengthen biological security through its UK Biological Engagement Programme which supports the broader Global Partnership launched at the 2002 G8 Kananaskis Summit. The UK Biological Engagement Programme is looking to draw more widely from UK academia and industry to identify and explore existing and potential international links to improve biological security.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory's (Dstl) Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) is calling for proposals in the following areas:

• Collaborative research projects which link UK experts with scientists overseas, in particular in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East or North Africa.
• Development and delivery of training courses in areas such as biosafety, biosecurity, veterinary and public health diagnostics and experimental design and analysis.
• Development of regional biosafety associations.
• Training and workshops in support of the aims of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
  

Projects already being funded by the programme  include a research programme in Georgia looking at disease-resistant crops, a three-year project in Tajikistan regarding disease in animals, and the training of diagnostic techniques at veterinary laboratories in Azerbaijan.

The call for proposals is being launched at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on 18 January 2012, with a deadline for proposals of 8 March 2012. Queries relating to the technical aspects of the programme should be sent to UKBEP@dstl.gov.uk. Registration is via the website www.science.mod.uk

About Dstl 

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) maximises the impact of science and technology (S&T) for the defence and security of the UK. 

It supplies sensitive and specialist S&T services for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and wider government, and leads and undertakes those activities that it would be inappropriate to carry out in the private sector. 

Dstl is a trading fund of the MOD and is run on commercial lines. It has a turnover of some £550 million much of which is spent in industry and academia.

Dstl is the largest scientific organisation within government, with around 3,500 scientists, technologists and engineers at its three main sites: Porton Down, near Salisbury, Portsdown West, near Portsmouth, and Fort Halstead, near Sevenoaks.