The Common Mechanism was initially proposed in 2020 by an international working group jointly convened by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), which also called for an international entity that will house the mechanism, promote its adoption, and work to establish global norms for nucleic acid synthesis screening. Later that year, NTI and WEF launched the Technical Consortium to inform the design of the Common Mechanism, consisting of African, Asian, European and North American experts from industry, academia, philanthropy, and international organizations. From 2020–2023, this Consortium guided the design of the baseline Common Mechanism screening process, and its ongoing development will continue to involve international experts. The Common Mechanism software and databases were developed by a team of technical consultants working with NTI, led by Dr. Nicole Wheeler of the University of Birmingham, and including contributions from Brittany Rife Magalis of the University of Louisville, Jennifer Lu of the Center for Computational Biology at Johns Hopkins University and our own Technical Lead, Tessa Alexanian. In 2024, IBBIS was launched to act as a long-term home for the Technical Consortium and Common Mechanism, as well as to support related initiatives in advancing biosecurity.