Educational Module Resource

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The content provided by the Educational Module Resource (EMR) specifically targets teachers, to assist them in learning about dual use topics and to provide materials for developing lesson plans to train scientists. The EMR is a major component of an ambitious education effort by researchers from the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. Much of the activity is carried out by the Bradford Disarmament Research Centre of the University of Bradford, which developed the EMR in cooperation with the Defence Medical College of Japan and the Landau Network Centro Volta.

The EMR provides a substantial amount of material, including 21 sets of PowerPoint slides and links to associated briefing papers that provide additional information under main themes such as "The Threat of Biological Warfare (BW) and Biological Terrorism (BT) and the International Prohibition Regime", "The Dual-Use Dilemma and the Responsibilities of Life Scientists", "National Implementation of the BTWC", and "Building an Effective Web of Prevention to Ensure Benign Development". The material, which was originally available in English and Japanese, is now ...
... also available in Russian. The slide sets are intended to provide resources that can be used for anything from a short module focused on a single topic to a complete course that could extend over a number of weeks.

As the project website notes: "We would like to emphasize that the educational module resource is not a Teaching Module rather it is a Module Resource. 'Conscious that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, our educational module resource is designed to be 'modified and tailored to fit the requirements of different local educational contexts'".

The project has already developed a substantial network of international colleagues through an ambitious series of seminars around the world intended to both raise awareness and foster education on dual use issues. The surveys described above are another way in which this group identifies potential partners; it is hoped that they, like the informal network, will make use of the EMR. And as described further below, another Bradford colleague has developed a program to take advantage of advances in videoconferencing to provide an online train-the-trainer program based on the EMR.

The materials provided at Life Sciences, Biosecurity and Dual Use Research: Dual Use Role Playing Simulation and at Biology and Security focus on providing resources and discussion questions that would be used to conduct in-person activities with an instructor or leader. For example, the role playing simulation provides an accompanying PowerPoint lecture, information on 16 roles, and instructor notes. The exercise, which was developed as part of the series of seminars carried out by Rappert and Dando described below, covers issues in research publication, funding, oversight, and relevant policy documents. The Student Pugwash USA Biology and Security materials include three hypothetical scenarios addressing ethics and dual use issues, along with accompanying discussion questions; also included is an "instant event idea" based on the plot synopsis and a video extract from the movie Mission Impossible II. The related discussion questions include one exploring the dual use nature of life sciences research.