COGR Submits Comments in Response to NIH’s Strengthening and Modernizing Biosafety Oversight Initiative

In its response to the NIH’s Strengthening and Modernizing Biosafety Oversight Initiative, COGR emphasizes the need for biosafety policies that are science-based, risk-based, harmonized across federal agencies, primarily reliant on local institutional biosafety committees, and confined to NIH-funded research as authorized by statute. COGR urges NIH to streamline and clarify oversight, avoiding duplicative or overly burdensome requirements, by empowering local committees to provide primary biosafety review under clear standards, limiting NIH’s direct review to only the highest-risk research, and excluding or expediting low-risk categories. The organization also advocates for increased interagency coordination or a unified regulatory approach, regular policy updates, and the elimination of unnecessary federal oversight for research already effectively regulated or demonstrated to present insignificant risk, thus supporting scientific progress while maintaining robust safety standards.