Members

Center for Biofilm Engineering (US)
National Biofilms Innovation Centre (UK)
Singapore Centre for Environmental and Life Science Engineering  (Singapore)
COST AMiCI Team (EU)

Position Statement

Biofilms are self-organized communities of one or more types of microorganisms embedded in an extracellular matrix. They collectively represent the largest biomass and activity center on the planet, playing a major role in the biology and chemistry of the environment (both natural and engineered) and in maintaining public health. A recent report from the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) estimated that biofilms impact globally about $5,000bn of economic activity.

  • The International Biofilm Standards Task Group has a mission of driving and influencing the international development and acceptance of standardized biofilm test methods in health care, the built environment, and industrial systems (“bringing biofilms into the conversation”).
  • This international group has, in their network, a community of academics, industrial partners, health care professionals, engineers, economists, regulators, and the standards community. These stakeholders have a clear need for international standards and regulations to aid in the development and testing of products to control or exploit biofilms. Further, they recognize the importance of using standard test methods when validating product efficacy.
  • It is our primary intent that science and evidence-based data will support methods development for the verification of the use of a product in a particular application.
  • Our industry partners have a recognised need for a defined regulatory pathway to create innovation in the marketplace and the adoption of new approaches.
  • There is value in this independent global task force being able to represent the current state of the science and the needs of our stakeholders in relation to biofilm methods.

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