The biotechnology ecosystem encompasses an expanding set of companies, start-ups, universities and other research organizations and a vibrant do-it-yourself biology community. Advances in biotechnology and the increasingly diverse profiles of new entrants to the ecosystem pose a range of chemical and biological weapon (CBW) proliferation risks and export control challenges. Among them, cloud laboratories (cloud labs) are an example of a new actor entering the biotechnology ecosystem that is pioneering a new business model. Cloud labs exemplify how developments in emerging technologies converge in a way that poses challenges for the application of export controls. Cloud lab providers offer fully automated, modular laboratories to customers for remote use to perform experiments and increasingly artificial intelligence-enabled research and analyses. Managing the CBW risks posed by cloud labs and other new actors in the biotechnology ecosystem requires awareness by relevant stakeholders and effective export control compliance measures. European Union member states and Australia Group participating states should therefore continue to assess and discuss the development of cloud labs, work to provide relevant guidance materials and develop good practices for conducting outreach activities targeting cloud lab providers and other relevant actors to reduce CBW proliferation risks.
Table of contents
I. Introduction
II. Actors in the biotechnology ecosystem and proliferation risks
III. Case study: Applying export controls to cloud laboratories
IV. National export control outreach to cloud labs and other actors in the biotechnology ecosystem
V. Conclusions and recommendations
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