Collaboration is at the heart of scientific advancement, particularly in public health research and research into the consequences of these pathogens. We saw this, for example, in the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, in the SARS outbreak in Canada and, most recently, in COVID-19. These examples show that international collaboration is essential in order to advance quickly to keep pace with evolving and mutating viruses.
It's important, while safeguarding the security of these pathogens and toxins, as well as of our science, to be able to collaborate in a secure environment, so it is very important that our personnel understand and work within policies that allow them to collaborate where necessary, while respecting the need to protect their work from unauthorized use.
In this type of context, as you've seen in the security awareness and the recently launched research security policy writ large across the country, it's very important that our science personnel are able to collaborate, but that, at the same time, they are very aware of the need for review, approvals, permissions and appropriate boundaries on that collaboration.