Someone is sponsoring an entire programme dedicated to preparing for future engineered pandemics.

But we have no right to know who's funding it.

Norman Fenton

made me aware of this new initiative out of the Universtity of Cambridge.

The article starts by stating that:

Covid-19 showed us how vulnerable the world is to pandemics – but what if the next pandemic were somehow engineered? How would the world respond – and could we stop it happening in the first place?

It goes on to say that:

The Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme is supported by a £5.25 million donation to the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge. The team intends it to form a central component of a future Pandemic Risk Management Centre, for which it is now fundraising.

One might well ask why the “Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences” is getting involved, especially in respect of “engineered” pandemics; I doubt very much that this is implict acceptance that pandemics are socio-political phenomena and the only effective engineering going on is by way of behavioural psychology.

As for the £5.25m donation, nowhere on the website is the donor named, but Norman asked via an FOI request:

However, the University is claiming exemption “on the grounds that its disclosure would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the University”:

Within the article above, there's a link to some more information on the programme itself:

The description reads:

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Established in 2024, the Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme is a pioneering transdisciplinary initiative dedicated to tackling the urgent challenge of engineered pandemic risk management.

The aim of the programme is twofold:

• Develop the conceptual underpinnings for a transdisciplinary approach to the risk management of engineered pandemics

• Help develop the capability of the UK’s engineered pandemic risk policy and practice communities through supporting a network or learning and exchange.

At the heart of our programme is a commitment to convening experts from academia, government, industry, and civil society to co-create the research and co-own the implementation of the insights generated. These collaborations will build a well-connected, well-informed, and highly motivated network of people in the UK working on engineered pandemic risk management.

There are four strands to our proposed programme:

1. Social determinants of engineered pandemic risk: will bring to an understanding of the social dimensions of the risk;

2. Biological determinants of engineered pandemic risk: will build an underpinning interdisciplinary understanding of the biological dimensions of the risk;

3. Modelling threats and risk management of engineered pandemics: will develop the modelling tools needed to design risk management responses;

4. Policy Innovation Challenges: will build the partnerships and stakeholder engagement that would drive the research design and curate the learning networks.

We are committed to supporting PhD students and early career postdocs who will go on to be future leaders, whether in academia, industry, civil society or government. Additionally, we will run programmes for practicing policy makers and a Policy Innovation Challenge programme to co-create research and co-design innovation in the policy world.

The Engineered Pandemics Risk Management Programme is the first programme launched at the new Centre for Pandemic Risk Management, generously funded through a donation.

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So:

• They’re putting together an entire programme dedicated to studying something which has not been shown to be an actual threat.

• They’re going to train up a whole generation to “prepare” for it.

• They’re going to “build a well-connected, well-informed, and highly motivated network of people in the UK working on engineered pandemic risk management.”

• It’s going to make extensive use of modelling tools.

And the worst of this is:

Someone is paying for the whole thing, and we have no right to know who it is.