The Need for Funding in Biofilm Standardisation

Funding for biofilm standardisation projects is critical for addressing current global challenges and advancing research and technology developments. By promoting consistency and standardisation, these efforts can have a significant impact on improving public health and the environment and on supporting multiple economic sectors.

NBIC recommends that funders, standardisation organisations and regulators should take the following actions:

 

  • Support the creation of a catalogue of standardised methodologies, validated and recommended by experts, which could be build e.g., under the umbrella of the British Standards Institute (BSI) and British Standards Online (BSOL).
  • Put a strategy in place for the development of guidelines, validated procedures and standardised methods that account for the inherent complexity and variability of biofilms to support reliable and reproducible research and products across sectors.
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  • Recognise the importance of metrology and validation research, such as round-robin studies, and provide the necessary support and resources to conduct them successfully.
  • UK Research Councils, especially Innovate UK, to provide a platform for industry and researchers to work together to support voluntary standardisation as an industry driven activity.
  • Establish a funding programme, readily accessible to both academic researchers and industry to encourage and enable collaborative, interdisciplinary research and metrology, and support standardisation (prenormative and normative) activities.
  • Encourage contributions from wider academic expertise, industry researchers and end-users to accelerate the development of standardised methodologies, especially in the areas such as biofilm affected industries, where the need is strong, yet progress is very slow.

Read our position paper, ‘The Need for Funding in Biofilm Standardisation’ to find out more. 

Publication date: 18/10/2023. Author: The National Biofilms Innovation Centre. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5258/biofilms/013