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      80 questions for UK biological security

      research-article
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          Abstract

          Multiple national and international trends and drivers are radically changing what biological security means for the United Kingdom (UK). New technologies present novel opportunities and challenges, and globalisation has created new pathways and increased the speed, volume and routes by which organisms can spread. The UK Biological Security Strategy (2018) acknowledges the importance of research on biological security in the UK. Given the breadth of potential research, a targeted agenda identifying the questions most critical to effective and coordinated progress in different disciplines of biological security is required. We used expert elicitation to generate 80 policy-relevant research questions considered by participants to have the greatest impact on UK biological security. Drawing on a collaboratively-developed set of 450 questions, proposed by 41 experts from academia, industry and the UK government (consulting 168 additional experts) we subdivided the final 80 questions into six categories: bioengineering; communication and behaviour; disease threats (including pandemics); governance and policy; invasive alien species; and securing biological materials and securing against misuse. Initially, the questions were ranked through a voting process and then reduced and refined to 80 during a one-day workshop with 35 participants from a variety of disciplines. Consistently emerging themes included: the nature of current and potential biological security threats, the efficacy of existing management actions, and the most appropriate future options. The resulting questions offer a research agenda for biological security in the UK that can assist the targeting of research resources and inform the implementation of the UK Biological Security Strategy. These questions include research that could aid with the mitigation of Covid-19, and preparation for the next pandemic. We hope that our structured and rigorous approach to creating a biological security research agenda will be replicated in other countries and regions. The world, not just the UK, is in need of a thoughtful approach to directing biological security research to tackle the emerging issues.

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          The need for evidence-based conservation.

          Much of current conservation practice is based upon anecdote and myth rather than upon the systematic appraisal of the evidence, including experience of others who have tackled the same problem. We suggest that this is a major problem for conservationists and requires a rethinking of the manner in which conservation operates. There is an urgent need for mechanisms that review available information and make recommendations to practitioners. We suggest a format for web-based databases that could provide the required information in accessible form.
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            No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide

            Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970–2014). Inter-continental and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration in trade in the twentieth century. For all taxonomic groups, the increase in numbers of alien species does not show any sign of saturation and most taxa even show increases in the rate of first records over time. This highlights that past efforts to mitigate invasions have not been effective enough to keep up with increasing globalization.
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              Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases

              Biodiversity is good for you Changes in biodiversity have the potential to either increase or reduce the incidence of infectious disease in plants and animals — including humans — because they involve interactions among species. At a minimum, this requires a host and a pathogen; often many more species are involved, including additional hosts, vectors and other organisms with which these species interact. Felicia Keesing and colleagues review the evidence that reduced biodiversity affects the transmission of infectious diseases of humans, other animals and plants. Despite important questions still to be answered, they conclude that the evidence that biodiversity exerts a protective effect on infectious diseases is sufficiently strong to include biodiversity protection as a strategy to improve health. Supplementary information The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/nature09575) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                6 January 2021
                2021
                : 16
                : 1
                : e0241190
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’s (BioRISC), St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [2 ] Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [3 ] Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [4 ] Great Britain Non-native Species Secretariat, Sand Hutton, Animal and Plant Health Agency, York, United Kingdom
                [5 ] Centre for Wildlife Management, School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
                [6 ] UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
                [7 ] Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
                [8 ] UK Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
                [9 ] Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, United Kingdom
                [10 ] Division of Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom
                [11 ] Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
                [12 ] Oxford Martin School and Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
                [13 ] Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States of America
                [14 ] Department of Pathology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [15 ] The Pirbright Institute, Pirbright, Surrey, United Kingdom
                [16 ] Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, United Kingdom
                [17 ] Marine and Fisheries Division, Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland, Downpatrick, United Kingdom
                [18 ] SPRU, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom
                [19 ] OpenCell, London, United Kingdom
                [20 ] Biosecure Ltd, Bourton-on-the-Water, United Kingdom
                [21 ] Earlham Institute, Norwich, United Kingdom
                [22 ] Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Crowmarsh Gifford, United Kingdom
                [23 ] Centre for Pathogen Evolution, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [24 ] Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), London, United Kingdom
                [25 ] Department for Public International Law, Comparative Law, and Ethics of Law, Law Faculty, Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany
                [26 ] Arms Control and Disarmament Research Unit, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, United Kingdom
                [27 ] Department of Landscape, Arts Tower, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
                [28 ] Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: Authors TM and HS are affiliated with Opencell. KM is affiliated with Biosecure Ltd. Arcadia provided support in the form of salaries for authors WS and CR. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3816-564X
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1541-6637
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0538-4173
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8389-1851
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0949-0934
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2589-2511
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9595-9753
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4038-7145
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5022-3286
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6498-0437
                Article
                PONE-D-19-34679
                10.1371/journal.pone.0241190
                7787535
                33406134
                8691e0ed-2bca-4cb3-89fe-dac7ad182071
                © 2021 Kemp et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 13 January 2020
                : 9 October 2020
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 0, Pages: 19
                Funding
                Funded by: David and Claudia Harding Foundation
                Award Recipient :
                The David and Claudia Harding Foundation for provided funding for the BioRISC project. Arcadia provided support in the form of salaries for authors WS. and CR. TM and HS are affiliated with Opencell. KM is affiliated with Biosecure Ltd. The funders did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section."
                Categories
                Research Article
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Species Colonization
                Invasive Species
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Epidemiology
                Medical Risk Factors
                Social Sciences
                Political Science
                National Security
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Veterinary Science
                Veterinary Diseases
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Bioengineering
                Engineering and Technology
                Bioengineering
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Epidemiology
                Pandemics
                Science Policy
                Biology and life sciences
                Organisms
                Viruses
                RNA viruses
                Orthomyxoviruses
                Influenza Viruses
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Microbiology
                Medical Microbiology
                Microbial Pathogens
                Viral Pathogens
                Orthomyxoviruses
                Influenza Viruses
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
                Pathogens
                Microbial Pathogens
                Viral Pathogens
                Orthomyxoviruses
                Influenza Viruses
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Viruses
                Viral Pathogens
                Orthomyxoviruses
                Influenza Viruses
                Custom metadata
                The initial questions provided by expert participants (the minimal data set) is provided in Appendix II. Further details on the contributors, including who they consulted to generate the questions, is provided in Appendix I.

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