Prof. David Winickoff and Dr. Samuel A. W. Evans have won a grant from the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation to host a series of workshops and a working group on the global governance issues around geoengineering and synthetic biology over the 2012-2013 academic year.

Containing technologies that pose security risks has been an important concern in international relations and international law. But technologies are not just solid objects like bombs and cameras, but also the knowledge and skills needed to develop, use, and maintain them. With today’s global production capabilities, it is often who has knowledge of something, rather than having the thing itself, that poses the security risk. This fact raises the question of whether there should be stronger governance over research in potentially risky domains, not just over usage of technology. This research project addresses two emerging research areas where transboundary security and safety regulation are currently being developed: synthetic biology and geoengineering. Through a series of reports, colloquia, and the production of a long‐term grant proposal, the Center will examine the normative rationales and operational mechanisms for the governance of research with transboundary and security risks.