The objectives of Project 53 are to provide: | AWARENESS RAISING: Project 53 aims to raise awareness of the importance on biosafety and biosecurity issues with national stakeholders in the partner countries, and to promote national and regional coopera-tion on these issues. Raise awareness and promote collaboration regarding the biosafety, biosecurity, emergency response and incident management issues among the national stakeholders. Reduce proliferation risks through the advancement and promotion of safe and responsible conduct in the field of biological sciences. | SPECIALIZED TRAINING: Project 53 aims to support adjusting local bio-safety and bio-security training to international standards, while stimulating regional cooperation on relevant issues. Identify available facilities, resources, capabilities and capacities in the partner countries to assess existing laboratory quality management and training packages, identify critical training requirements and collaborations during the project, and improve sustainability thereafter. Develop and implement national and regional, harmonised and sustainable training system for Biosafety and Biosecurity practitioners. This may include improvements of national cur-ricula and teaching methods in Research Institutes, Universities and other education levels, and, ‘Train the Trainer’ activities using activity based learning and e-learning tools. | LEGAL FRAMEWORK: Project 53 aims to assist partner countries to realize their international obligations to harmonize national bio-safety and bio-security legal frameworks with the World Health Organisation’s International Health Regulation (WHO IHR), Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and Codex Alimentarius food safety laws. Provide support for strengthening of the national legal systems addressing biosafety and biosecurity, through the provision of legal support in drafting specific documents. Reinforce biological non-proliferation principles, practices and instruments through commu-nication with the national legal processes. | EU CBRN CoE Initiative: Project 53 is part of the European Union Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative (EU CBRN CoE), which was launched in response to the need to strengthen the institutional capacity of countries outside the European Union to mitigate CBRN risks. These risks may be created intentionally (e.g. the Sarin attack on the Japanese subway), accidentally (e.g. Bhopal) or naturally (e.g. swine flu). This EU Initiative is led, financed and implemented by the European Commission, in close coordination with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and with the support of the UN (UNICRI) and other International Organisations and local experts, among them, the International Science and Technology Centre. The EU CBRN CoE aims to strengthen regional security by increasing local ownership, local ex-pertise and long-term sustainability. The CoE is centred around a worldwide network of local experts and collaborating partners. In avoiding a traditional top-down approach, we work in partnership with countries to encourage local ownership of CBRN action plans, policies and pro-ject proposals. The CoE aims to strengthen regional security by increasing local ownership, local expertise and by ensuring long-term sustainability through this dynamic network that continues to evolve.