b'Priority Questions FOR MICROBIAL BIOFILMSThe Priority Questions for Microbial Biofilms ExerciseParticipants were asked to submit their questions is a joint venture between NBIC, the Center foranonymously in April 2021 and were also given the Biofilm Engineering (CBE), Singapore Centre foroption to leave their contact details if interested in Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), COSTparticipating further with the activity. We received AMiCI Consortium and the ESCMID Study Group for309 questions in total, from across every continent, Biofilms (ESGB). We called on the international biofilmtotalling 31 countires.community to help us identify priority questions that, if answered, would make a considerable impact onThe team, alongside those who showed interest in the fundamentals of the field of microbial biofilms, tosupporting the initiative further, have identified ten innovation in approaches to prevent, detect, managetop questions and some further reserve questions for and engineer biofilms, or which would be expected tosix clusters, which will be combined and then further have an impact in influencing policy makers and funders.consolidated in one more round before being turned into a position paper, which will be published as a To date, there has not been an international andresource for the field. This is expected to help set the community-wide synthesis of key questions and priorityagenda for future research in the field of microbial research or innovation areas for the biofilm field. Suchbiofilms as well as have impact in areas of policy and exercises can play a critical role in bridging the gapoutreach.between the data generated by researchers, and the information needed by policymakers to make funding or regulatory decisions. We called for questions that are unanswered, could be answered (including through high-risk and blue-skies research), and that could be tackled by a research programme.25'