The Scientific Advisory Board.

 

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) benefits greatly from its mandated scientific advisory mechanism. The SAB serves to inform policy makers and the OPCW itself on the impact of scientific change and provides advice on how this might be considered for treaty implementation. The SAB met for its first session in 1998, and over the years since this initial event, it has seen changes in direction and focus, that mirror in many ways the dynamic nature of scientific evolution. These changes in reflect the needs of OPCW in the context of its operating environments and year to year priorities, the arrival and departure of SAB members bringing all of whom bring with unique skills and knowledge to share among the Board (SAB members can serve on the Board for up to six years), and the requests and guidance from the Director-General and the OPCW Staff members who have facilitated the Board’s work (there have been five individuals since 1998 who served as Secretary to the SAB). In its early years, the SAB considered key topics for the OPCW as it began its operations. These included T.emporary Working Gr.oups on sampling and analysis and analytical procedures, biomedicalsamples, ricin, analytical procedures, requirementsand specifications for on-site monitoring equipment, technologies for the destruction of chemical weapons, Adamsite (an organoarsenical compound), and low-concentration limits for Schedule 2A and 2A*chemicals. Recommendations and considerations informed the development of analytical methods used by the Designated Laboratories and other key activities that benefit the Convention. As the Convention moved beyond its first decade in force, the SAB began looking at broader and more futurefocused topics, including through temporary working groups on the convergence of scientific disciplines (specifically chemistry and biology), education and outreach (which led to the formation of OPCW’s Advisory Board on Education and Outreach), verification, investigative science and technology, and biotoxins. Current areas where the SAB is involved include chemical forensics and AI. While using the temporary working group format to bring broader expertise to the table and provide in-depth consideration on emerging areas of relevance, the SAB has also responded to requests by the Director-General that called for clarifications or collecting information related to the status of medical countermeasures, isotopically labeled and stereoisomers of Scheduled chemicals, environmental and biomedical sample storage and stability, riot control agents, and new types of nerve agents; the findings in these efforts included recognition of key knowledge and capabilities required for effective implementation of the Convention. In its report to the Fourth Review Conference in 2018, the SAB reviewed advances in science and technology across a broad range of disciplines and sectors, provided advice on chemicals, technologies for the delivery of toxic chemicals and drugs, science and technology of relevance to verification, assistance and protection, science and technology of relevance to chemical safety and security, and scientific literacy and science advice. Five years later, in its report to the Fifth Review Conference, the SAB informed by the broad scientific landscape it had looked at from 2013-2018, took a more focused and in-depth look at specific issues impacting the Convention in these same topical areas (and especially technology convergence). The range of topics noted in the previous section of this paper as having relevance to the Convention have all been considered in these reports and advice provided to the Director-General, who in turn responds to the SAB to help guide and inform the deliberations of the States Parties on scientific issues. The SAB has also looked at new ways to engage with scientific communities beyond itsT.emporary Working Groups and long-established collaboration with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), through efforts that include “crowd sourcing” initiatives like the Plant Biomarker Challenge and the recently launched AI Research Challenge to help it reach deeper into technical communities that may have useful insights that benefit the Convention and its implementation. These crowd-source initiatives follow from advice provided by the SAB from its considerations of emerging technologies in the lead-up to the Fourth Review Conference.