Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative

The Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative is a $2.5 million initiative designed to bring together researchers nationwide to create products that protect Americans from the intentional use of animal-borne diseases to infect humans or to disrupt the national economy.

The Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative will support inter-institutional research to:

  • Develop countermeasures for foreign-animal diseases;
  • Provide advanced test and evaluation capability for threat detection, vulnerability, and countermeasure assessment for animal and zoonotic diseases;
  • Support licensure of vaccine countermeasures through essential animal-model testing and evaluation; and
  • Strengthen biosecurity capabilities of institutions serving certain regions and populations, such as students underrepresented in biosecurity research.

Agricultural and food infrastructure is a key component of U.S. economic productivity and growth, accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product ($1.24 trillion) and representing one in six jobs in direct or related employment. The Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative will bring the nation’s brightest researchers together to protect the public health and safeguard the agriculture economy, using the unique biosecurity research capabilities and facilities at Kansas State University. The initiative allows academic, federal-agency, and nonprofit researchers to collaborate with K-State scientists to perform research not possible at their home institutions.

The CBRI will provide up to $500,000 to investigators conducting projects in partnership with researchers at K-State’s Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI), building on Kansas’ international leadership in plant- and animal-health research. The state is home to nearly one-third of the $14.2 billion global animal-health industry and 45 animal-health companies’ U.S. or international headquarters.

For more information or to apply, please see KBA CBRI RFP.

“We have some very exciting life sciences companies in various stages of development here in our region, and with support from the Kansas Bioscience Authority, we have a much better opportunity to be successful and to grow and retain them here.”

- Sam Campbell, Co-founder, CritiTech