The twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24) and the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 3) take place virtually in the period 3 May to 13 June 2021. The SBSTTA 24 plenaries take place 3-4 May, 23-26 May and 7-9 June. The SBI 3 plenaries take place 16-18 May, 28-30 May and 11-13 June. The SBSTTA 24 provisional agenda includes items on 'Synthetic biology' and 'Risk assessment and risk management of living modified organisms'. The SBI 3 provisional agenda includes an item on 'Assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety'. Official meeting documents (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and information documents (in English) for these two subsidiary bodies of the Convention on Biological Diversity are available at https://www.cbd.int/meetings/SBSTTA-24 and https://www.cbd.int/meetings/SBI-03 respectively. A media primer about the relationship between these two meetings and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety issues is also available at https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2021/pr-2021-05-02-bs-en.pdf. Contact [email protected] for more information.