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The following message is sent on behalf of Dugan O’Neil, Vice President Research and International.

Dear ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Faculty and Staff members:

The university is seeking your input on the proposed revisions to the Biosafety Policy (R 20.02).

Policy R 20.02 was last updated in 2009, and was reviewed in 2019 as part of the R policy update initiative. The policy has been rewritten to account for changes in the Biosafety Program, the committee structure and terms of reference and in regulatory requirements.

Significant Policy changes include

• Adapting to the new ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV templates, which required re-organization of most sections
• Development of the policy section
• Removal of ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ and instead referring to the ‘Biosafety program’
• Removal of ‘Biosafety committee membership’ since this is covered in the TOR
• The ‘Biosafety Program Inspection Protocol’ has been eliminated. The policy now refers to the ‘Biosafety program’ which includes inspection requirements
• 'Biosecurity’ was defined and oversight included in the policy section

Significant changes to the Terms of reference include

• Clarified that graduate student representative term is for one year
• Updated wording to require members to have expertise and experience in certain areas
• Added expiry date for appointment terms
• Specified that member renewal is automatic
• Added member from Campus Public Safety to advise on issues of biosecurity
• Moved the BSO from voting member to non-voting member

Significant changes to the Biosafety permits procedure include

• Steps in the Permit application and clarification of the renewal and amendment process for permits in the context of research or course/teaching program.

Please review the revised Biosafety Policy () and submit your feedback to: Trevor Davis, Executive Director, Research Operations, at trevor_davis@sfu.ca by November 19, 2021.

Sincerely,

Dugan O’Neil
Vice President Research and International