Merck established design criteria for “Biological Containment for Animal Facilities” and “Biological Containment for BSL-3 Laboratories and Pilot Plants” that aligns with global biosafety standards, considers lessons learned, offers cost-effective solutions, and employs lean principles. These standards provide key architectural and engineering criteria that aid in the design of facilities used for biological containment. The purpose of each standard is to:

  • Minimize engineering pre-work soft cost in pre-design and early phases of a project. Expedite the design process and reduce project schedule.
  • Provide a more efficient and consistent design between projects.
  • Provide best in class total cost of ownership.
  • Leave flexibility to the projects to address / manage local constraints.

CRC served as the lead biocontainment and biosafety consultant for the Global Engineering Design Standards that defines requirements for Biocontainment Animal Facilities and Biocontainment Research Facilities. Each standard covers architectural and engineering considerations for building facilities for researching infectious and biohazardous agents and toxins categorized as Risk Group Two or Three. 

Serving as the international subject matter experts for biosafety and biocontainment, CRC prepared the Global Engineering Design Standards. The standards address the following biosafety containment levels:

  • Biosafety levels (BSL-1 through BSL-3)
  • Biosafety levels for animals housing (ABSL-1 through ABSL-3)
  • Biosafety level 3 high containment large animal housing (BSL-3Ag)
  • Biosafety level for aquatic organisms (AQC-1 through AQC-3)
  • Biosafety level for arthropods (ACL-1 through ACL-3)
  • Pilot plants

CRC also served as the Program Manager to lead the development of the Global Engineering Design Standards. Program Management services supported the engineering, biosafety, biosurety and veterinary concepts both national and international in scope. Support included developing the new documents. This required assisting with the conception, collaboration, development and delivery of the final standards. Progress was tracked by CRC to ensure the proper and on-going data collection and management of the data so it was properly maintained. CRC supported all meetings through scheduling, attending and recording meeting minutes for progress meetings with necessary Merck representation (Biological Safety Officers, Engineers, Facility Managers) from the United States, Netherlands and Singapore to ensure timelines were developed and tasks assigned to both CRC and Merck personnel were completed on time.