Sam Weiss Evans is a Co-PI on this recent grant award to study how security issues are and are not being discussed in the life sciences. Together with PI Prof. Brian Rappert (University of Exeter), Co-PI Prof. Brian Balmer (University College, London), Prof. Malcolm Dando (Bradford University), and Dr. Chandre Gould (Institute for Security Studies, South Africa), Sam will be studying what is not taking place in different case studies related to the potential for life science knowledge and techniques to serve destructive purposes. Through doing so, the project will consider how such cases can inform other studies of emerging areas of concern and how they can inform empirical social research in general.

Sam’s portion of this project is to provide a comparative analysis of how areas of synthetic biology are seen as being and not being matters of security concern within the US and EU. What broad discourses, institutional histories, and other factors have played into the US and EU pursuing different ways of talking about security concerns (though possibly not doing much about them), or taking action on security concerns (though possibly not talking much about it)? What work is being done in each case to turn attention away from security concerns, by changing either what is being done or the discussion about it? Why is this shift seen as a valuable move? The intention in asking these questions is not to argue that security concerns should be more thoroughly addressed, but rather to better understand ways and reasons security concerns are framed, caught up in, and dissolved in the process of developing new biotechnology in two different regions of the world.

Other researchers on the project are studying issues of neuroscience, genetic engineering, and the South African biological and chemical weapons program.

The project commenced in the Summer of 2013 for 18 months. It is funded by the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the British Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and administered by the University of Exeter under grant number ES/K011308/1.