The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) recently announced that it endorsed the Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists developed by Tianjin University, China，and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, USA.

According to a news released by IAP, “the Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists are a set of 10 guiding principles and standards of conduct designed to underpin biosecurity governance at national and institutional levels.”

As early as in 2015, the Chinese government submitted a proposal for the development of a model code of conduct for biological scientists. In 2016, a working paper for A Model Code of Conduct for Bio-scientists developed by scholars at Tianjin University’s Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy was submitted by China and Pakistan together to the 2016 Eighth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), and a follow-up document was submitted in 2018. Since the end of 2020, Tianjin University’s Center for Biosafety Research and Strategy, together with Johns Hopkins University and the IAP, have organized a team of scientists to revise and improve the proposed model code and finally formed the Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines.

It is reported that scientists from 21 countries participated in developing that Guidelines. For the full text of Tianjin Guideline, please click here.

By Eva Yin