2018 Biosafety Month–Promoting a Culture of Biosafety and Responsibility

ABSA International is proud to announce the 5th anniversary of Biosafety Month in October 2018. The theme for this year is “Promoting a Culture of Biosafety and Responsibility,” with the hashtag #getyourcultureon. The Public Relations and Marketing (PR/M) Committee within ABSA is creating resources, including a logo and customizable poster, to promote the event. Visual products will include thematic elements that reflect materials and actions involved in a safe biosafety culture, such as a scientist working in a biological safety cabinet wearing appropriate personal protective equipment. The PR/M Committee will work with existing ABSA Alliances in an effort to gain cross-organization support and promotion of Biosafety Month. ABSA International’s existing E-Marketing platform will be used for reoccurring marketing efforts.

The 2018 Biosafety Month is a period of time when individuals and organizations are encouraged to focus on and reinforce their attention to biosafety and biosecurity standards. ¹ In 2014, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) introduced Biosafety Month as an initiative to promote stewardship of the life sciences and biosafety awareness. ² Every year the NIH highlighted a biosafety theme for organizations to consider and implement at their institution.^{3 -5}

In a collaborative decision in late 2017, the NIH transitioned the management of Biosafety Month to ABSA International. The PR/M Committee was tasked with directing efforts to support Biosafety Month. In February 2018, the PR/M Committee conducted a survey of biosafety professionals to determine the future direction of Biosafety Month. There was a robust response to the survey, and the results were used to increase the understanding of stakeholders’ needs and allowed the PR/M Committee to focus on initiatives that would be the most beneficial to the biosafety community.

Results from the survey showed the greatest barrier to implementing successful safety campaigns during past Biosafety Months was not having sufficient lead-time. To address this gap, ABSA International is taking a proactive step to ensure that the theme for Biosafety Month is announced by August 1 through ABSA.org. The survey also showed that 47% of the ABSA membership had not achieved any organizational benefits from past Biosafety Month initiatives. Through targeting implementation barriers and sharing reproducible, successful strategies, ABSA International will address this deficiency. Biosafety Month provides an opportunity for ABSA International to demonstrate value to its membership, and the biosafety community at large, by serving as an influential, credible resource for all biosafety stakeholders.

The survey also overwhelmingly identified safety culture as the topic with the most interest from the membership. Analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data collected in the survey further reinforced the importance of this thematic topic. A culture of biosafety is designed to support and enhance biosafety practices, while upholding professional biosafety standards and ethics. It should be noted that the 2015 Biosafety Month theme was also about safety culture. However, over the past several years, it continues to be an ongoing challenge for the ABSA membership.

Thematic elements of enhancing a culture of biosafety include enhancing biosafety training; promoting the development of comprehensive biosafety standard operating procedures; engaging senior leadership to advocate for biosafety programs; supporting researchers to take an active role in biosafety efforts in their laboratories; encouraging institutions to develop non-punitive incident reporting systems and provide lessons learned; highlighting successes in the conduct of ethical and safe research; and promoting public transparency regarding institutional biosafety oversight. ⁶

It is essential to remember that not all institutions and entities have the same resources at their disposal. Almost a quarter (23%) of survey respondents identified the need for implementation guidance and tools as a top priority. This emphasizes the need for the PR/M Committee to develop practical, relevant resources that could be customized with minimal effort at each organization. To achieve this goal, the committee is actively creating a library of documents focusing on practical guidance for implementation. Users may choose documents based on their organizational characteristics. Conception of implementation documents will be based on lessons learned and needs identified in the survey. These resources will be made available at ABSA.org/event/2018-biosafety-month/.

ABSA International is pleased to be a part of Biosafety Month 2018, “Promoting a Culture of Biosafety and Responsibility,” and encourages all biosafety professionals to “Get Your Culture On!” #getyourcultureon.