Under the European Union’s CBRN Centres of Excellence Project 53 (P53) eight training sessions have been recently conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic. Four trainings for the Northern regions took place in the Republican Center of Quarantine and Especially Dangerous Infections - Ministry of Public Health on 20-22 November and 4-6, 11-13 and 19-21 December 2018. Other four trainings for the southern regions took place  Osh anti-plague Department of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic on 18-20, 21-23 and 25-27 February, and between 28 of February and 2 of March 2019.

These workshops provided training to Kyrgyz experts in the field of bio-safety and bio-security, who received important theoretical and practical information that can be easily applied in their work in different laboratories. The target audience was a total of 160 medical and veterinary specialists, twenty per training.  

The Project 53 was conceived and funded within the framework of the EU CBRN CoE (www.cbrn-coe.eu) Initiative, which currently covers 8 regions and 61 partner countries. The EU CBRN CoE Secretariat for Central Asia is based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It works in partnership with countries to encourage local ownership of CBRN action plans, policies and joint preparation of regional project proposals.

The ISTC, implementer of P53, has funded and managed several hundred projects in Central Asia over the past 20 years. Expertise to implement P53 is provided by a UK-led consortium of international legislative experts (SCJS, VERTIC), and bio-safety and bio-security training experts (PHE, RIVM).