• Charles Sturt University in Canberra will host a forum on Wednesday 4 December for all security intelligence stakeholders who work across the health and biological security continuum and national security agencies

A special forum at Charles Sturt University in Canberra will examine how Australia and its allies can better prepare for a future of increasingly complex health and biological security threats, risks and hazards.

The forum ‘Health Security Intelligence: Managing Threats Risks and Hazards Post-COVID-19’ on Wednesday 4 December is at the Charles Sturt Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security (AGSPS) in Canberra and online.

Event organiser Professor Patrick Walsh (pictured above, inset), Professor of Intelligence and Security Studies in the AGSPS, said the forum is for all health security intelligence stakeholders  ̶  policymakers, national security staff, scientists, researchers and clinicians  ̶  who work across the ‘one health’ continuum and national security agencies.

“The ‘Health Security Intelligence: Managing Threats Risks and Hazards Post-COVID-19’ forum is particularly timely and relevant with the recent release of the Commonwealth Government’s COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report,” Professor Walsh said.

“As the acute impact of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, many unaddressed questions remain for Australia about how to better prepare for the next likely health threat, risk or hazard.

“Given the likelihood of another pandemic at some point, an increasingly uncertain geo-political order and the potential exploitation of biotechnology by bad actors, we need to enhance national public health capacity by understanding the important lessons from the pandemic from national security and biosecurity perspectives.”

Professor Walsh edited the recently published Health Security Intelligence: Managing Emerging Threats and Risks in a Post-COVID World (Routledge UK) which will be highlighted among the presentations at the forum.

He said the forum will introduce participants to Charles Sturt’s extensive research agenda across the ‘one health’ biosecurity field (health and biological security disciplines) and discuss both their national security and scientific implications.

The forum will provide briefings from other key researchers across both STEM and social science disciplines who are assessing key health security threats, risks and hazards:

• Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Mark Evans will introduce Charles Sturt’s biosecurity and health security research capabilities.
• Professor in Philosophy Seumas Miller in the AGSPS will discuss genomic security and the ethical implication of dual-use biological research.
• Professor in Biochemistry Jade Forwood in the Gulbali Institute will outline key biosecurity research at Charles Sturt.

Professor Walsh said Charles Sturt University plays an important role in various aspects of national biosecurity, particularly through the Charles Sturt Biosecurity Hub and the Biosecurity Training Centre, which is co-located with the  Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub and AgriPark.

The forum is free and accessible both in-person and online. Please register at Humanitix.

The Charles Sturt University Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security is at 10-12 Brisbane Ave, Barton, ACT.

Professor Walsh’s Health Security Intelligence: Managing Emerging Threats and Risks in a Post-COVID World appears in the ‘Studies in Intelligence’ series by Routlege UK, and is also available via Open Access.

The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to explore the role national security intelligence agencies played in supporting national governments’ responses to COVID-19, and is relevant to students of intelligence studies, especially the Master of Intelligence Analysis, as well as health security, public health and international relations.