RBP Registration Criteria

Biological Safety Professional

A Registered Biological Safety Professional (RBP) is an individual with documented university education or specialized training in relevant biological safety disciplines. An RBP has an understanding of infectious diseases, their transmission, and the application of methods to safely control infectious materials in research, clinical, production, testing, educational, developmental and other work environments. RBPs understand the need for and application of biological safety principles and practices. They have detailed knowledge of regulatory guidelines and standards impacting work with infectious agents and materials. An RBP has understanding of safe methods for manipulating, studying, producing, and containing infectious microorganisms and biological hazards. She/he maintains a level of professional knowledge current with new developments in biological safety. RBPs understand sufficient cell biology, pathogenic microbiology, molecular genetics, immune responses of hosts, and concepts of infectious transmission to enable them to apply safeguards to work with biohazardous materials, including recombinant DNA manipulation.

An RBP has experience in biological safety implementation and in the drafting, auditing, presentation, training and enforcement of biological safety practices. RBPs are dedicated to the prevention of occupational exposure to infectious diseases and recommend good faith compliance of their employers with all pertinent published laws and standards impacting biological safety in the work place. Registered biological safety professionals never condone work practices that place any employee or individual in imminent or predictable danger of infection.

General Criteria

Graduation from an accredited college or university^1,2 with a Baccalaureate degree in a physical or biological science discipline, plus
five years or more of professional biological safety experience acceptable to the Examining Board.

In order to qualify as acceptable biosafety experience, the applicant's principal responsibility must be to coordinate and/or direct a comprehensive biosafety program. However, it does not necessarily need to be their only responsibility. Applicants must demonstrate responsibility for Coordinating a comprehensive biosafety program involves identification of biohazards, evaluation of risks associated with the identified biohazard, and implementation of appropriate controls. Applicants may also be responsible for defining the requirements and implementation of a comprehensive biosafety program.

In addition, professional biological safety experience may be supplemented with laboratory experience gained through working with biohazards in a microbiology laboratory at a rate of 10% of the total time spent in the laboratory. For example, if an individual has worked for 5 years in a microbiology laboratory using biohazardous materials safely, 6 months of that time may be counted towards professional biological safety experience. Note: Only experience gained through using or working with biohazards may be counted.

Substitutions or Modifications of the General Criteria

An earned Doctoral degree in a relevant discipline from an accredited college or university may be recognized in lieu of up to three years of the applicant's required professional biological safety experience.
A Master's degree in a relevant discipline from an accredited college or university may be recognized in lieu of two years of the applicant's required professional biological safety experience.
Professional certification, licensing, or registration that required qualifications commensurate with those in the General Criteria, may be recognized in lieu of two years of the applicant's required professional biological safety experience.

(Only one of the professional experience equivalents will be credited. If more than one professional experience equivalent is acceptable, the Examining Board will apply the one that provides the most credit.)

An applicant not meeting the academic requirements may, at the discretion of the Examining Board, be permitted to substitute approved biological safety experience for each academic year deficient, per the guideline below..

Substitution of biological safety experience for degree requirement:

Biological safety experience may be substituted for the basic academic requisite at the rate of two years (24 months) directly related biosafety experience for each of the four years of the required academic degree. If an individual does not have the requisite baccalaureate degree, he/she may substitute 96 months of professional biosafety experience in lieu of the baccalaureate degree requirement.

Note: Experience used in meeting the basic academic requisite cannot be applied to the professional biological safety experience requisite. This means an individual not meeting the requisite degree requirement noted above would need to demonstrate thirteen years of professional biological safety experience (eight years for degree equivalency and five years of additional experience) to meet the general criteria for registration.

Request for Reconsideration for Good Cause: Requests for reconsideration following rejection of Registration must be submitted in writing and include additional information not submitted previously to the Examining Board. The requests for reconsideration will be heard by the Council and by the Chair of the Examining Board for Registration. If the Examining Board's ruling is deemed in need of reconsideration, the Council shall review the credentials of the applicant and the reasons for rejection by the Examining Board and issue its recommendation in writing to the Examining Board. The Examining Board's reconsideration result will be considered final. Applicants rejected for RBP registration after reconsideration for good cause may reapply in not less than six months when they have demonstrated evidence that remedies the deficiencies identified for their qualification as a registered RBP.

Additional information and application forms can be obtained by writing to:

Examining Board for Registration
American Biological Safety Association
1202 Allanson Road
Mundelein, IL 60060
(847) 949-1517

Footnotes:

1.Accredited college or university means accredited by one of the following: Western Association of Schools and Colleges; Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; New England Association of Schools and Colleges; North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges; or, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

2.For an applicant providing transcripts from a college or university outside the US and Canada, verification of the degree program will be required. Any evaluation company accepted by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (http://www.naces.org/) is acceptable to evaluate academic credentials.


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