The U.S. Bio-Chem Redirect Program

BCR is overseen and coordinated by the State Department Nonproliferation Bureau’s Office of Proliferation Threat Reduction (NP/PTR), which provides funds to three U.S. agencies to implement the program: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These agencies work through the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow and the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), located in Kiev, to implement the program. In addition to its primary nonproliferation objective, the program meets important U.S. research objectives in the following areas: global public health, livestock and plant health, environmental monitoring and remediation, and measures to combat biological and chemical terrorism. The BCR program supports the following expenses: project salaries for Eurasian scientists possessing dual-use expertise; limited purchases of project-relevant laboratory equipment and reagents; and travel expenses for Eurasian scientists related to legitimate project needs, including scientific conferences, training, and meetings with their U.S. collaborators.