To summarize, this study indicates that it is possible to classify bacteria and spores as live or dead, but more data is required to develop more reliable models. Also, a method to perform Raman measurements of (fixed) bacteria must be developed. In this project were initially a literature study conducted and experiments were made to investigate whether it is possible to use Raman microscopy and/or a line scanning SWIR camera to classify viable and dead bacteria and spores. Such methods have the potential to significantly reduce the time needed to verify decontamination of surfaces. A conclusion is that it is possible to use existing equipment to obtain Raman spectra of spores with measuring times in the order of minutes per sample point. Bacteria have, however, most likely to be fixed in order to be measured by Raman microscopy. SWIR imaging is significantly faster than Raman spectroscopy; a complete image of e.g. a drop of a suspension containing spores/bacteria can be imaged in seconds. SWIR is also compatible with many different types of samples and backgrounds/surfaces, e.g. silicon, glass and steel surfaces. One limitation is that SWIR spectra may be more difficult to interpret and the peaks may be harder to assign compared to Raman spectroscopy. The classification method PLS-DA has been used to compare spectra from viable and dead bacteria and spores. Agents studied in this project are Bacillus thuringiensis spores and Escherichia coli. Inactivation methods comprise autoclaving for 15 minutes at 121 °C, treatment with 70 % ethanol and treatment with a decontaminant that generates chlorine dioxide. A classification of a limited number of Raman spectra shows big spectral differences between living and autoclaved B. thuringiensis spores. All spectra in the test set were correctly classified as spectra from viable or dead spores. Live and dead spores were also studied with a SWIR camera, but the spores were in that case treated with a decontaminant that generates chlorine dioxide. In that case, the difference between the groups was much more modest and there were no obvious spectral differences between the groups. The classification model could however still classify most data of the test set correctly (88.7 %). The differences between the SWIR spectra from live and inactivated E. coli (treated with ethanol) was larger. It could be clearly seen that spectra from live bacteria had generally much stronger absorption at 1925 nm, which is a band in the literature assigned to protein bound water. 94.2 % of the data in the test set were correctly classified as spectra from live or dead E. coli.