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Tipsheet

Trump Takes Aim at Gain-of-Function Research in Latest Executive Order

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending current and future federal funding for gain-of-function research in certain countries, such as China and Iran.

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The order seeks to protect Americans from this type of “dangerous” research and any lab accidents and biosecurity incidents that most likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

American innovation will not be impeded by the order, according to the White House, but it will increase the safety and security of biological research in the U.S.

  • For decades, policies overseeing gain-of-function research on pathogens, toxins, and potential pathogens have lacked adequate enforcement, transparency, and top-down oversight. Researchers have not acknowledged the legitimate potential for societal harms that this kind of research poses.
  • The Biden Administration allowed dangerous gain-of-function research with insufficient levels of oversight and actively approved Federal life-science research funding in China and other countries.
  • The 2024 United States Government Policy for Oversight of Dual Use Research of Concern and Pathogens with Enhanced Pandemic Potential (“DURC/PEPP”) and the 2024 Framework for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening are the latest examples of inadequate policies that rely on self-reporting and fail to protect Americans from dangerous research practices.
  • This Order pauses research using infectious pathogens and toxins in the United States that may pose a danger to American citizens until a safer, more enforceable, and transparent policy governing such research can be developed and implemented. It directs the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Security Advisor (NSA) to work with funding agencies to develop such a policy within 120 days.
  • Unlike previous policies, this Order contains enforcement and reporting mechanisms that will strengthen oversight and discourage subjective interpretation of policies that researchers have used in the past to evade biosafety and biosecurity oversight. (White House)
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