The project brings together leading academic and industrial partners, each of which has a distinct role or skill in the project. A key strength of AMBIO is the unification of these partners into a coordinated, interdisciplinary programme incorporating all the necessary research elements from polymer chemistry and nanosurface engineering technologies to biological evaluation, coatings development and end-user trials.
The AMBIO network of 31 partners (10 Universities, 15 companies, 6 research organisations) also covers the full value chain from basic science to application, development, manufacturing and commercialisation, culminating in key customers for the designated fields of application. Partners mainly from universities and research institutions will work on the development and characterisation of novel nanostructured surfaces and understanding of how they function in controlling biofouling. Industrial partners will mainly focus on the manufacturing and application of innovative products. AMBIO will effectively commercialise its developments, especially with the strong contribution of SMEs in development and manufacturing.
Twelve EU Member States are represented as well as Turkey and Israel.

The 5-year project has a total budget of € 17.9 million of which € 11.9 million is funded by the European Community, and it started on March 1st 2005.