A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on January 19, 2000, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. The meeting consisted on an entirely closed (members only) session which included a business portion and a discussion session aimed at biomedical engineering training and educational opportunities.

Items covered in the business session included:

1. BRP-2 Applications and Reviews;
2. Recommendations and Conclusions resulting from the Consensus TAC Medical Implant Performance Conference at NIH during January 10-12, 2000;
3. The status of the BECON Nanotechnology Symposium scheduled for June 25-26, 2000;
4. Biomedical Engineering Materials and Applications (BEMA) Roundtable status;
5. The new BECON Web site; and
6. BRP-1 applications and funding.

The discussion session focused on evaluating the efficacy of bioengineering training programs, discussing formats and objectives for new programs, and determining mechanisms for supporting these opportunities. Strong support for training that enables engineers/scientists to bridge to biomedicine and for biomedical personnel to bridge to engineering/science exists among the BECON members. Possible new training and career development programs were identified along with improvements to existing ones. Further discussions among NIH institute representatives and other federal agencies are planned.