U.S. High-Risk Research Oversight and Equipment Controls

Federal regulators have halted or restricted certain high-risk gain-of-function work while shifting more risk decisions to institutions and tightening scrutiny of foreign collaborations. NIH's draft biosafety policy would expand Select Agent oversight and require public IBC minutes and incident reports, creating a transparency-versus-security tradeoff; equipment-control disputes, the UNC FOIA case, and reported grant-veto authority remain active or unconfirmed.