A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on February 16, 2000, from 3:00 to 5:10 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. The meeting consisted of an entirely closed (members only) session during which the following items were discussed:

1. Status of BRP-1 Applications - Of the 117 applications submitted in response to the 1999 Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) Program Announcement, 27 have been funded or are pending. The 27 applications total about $26 M for first year funding for an average first year award of about $950 k.
   
   
2. BRP-2 Application Status - A total of 92 applications have been received for the BRP-2 Program. Study groups have been assigned for these applications, and some will be ready for the May institute councils.
   
   
3. FIRST Program - A national program titled "For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology" (FIRST) was described and a videotape of recent competition reviewed. More information concerning financial and personnel commitments and the technical focus of the program will be obtained to determine if future support is appropriate.
   
   
4. Status of the BECON 2000 Nanotechnology Symposium - Planning for the BECON 2000 Nanotechnology Symposium scheduled for June 25-26, 2000, at the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland is proceeding. The complete conference Web site which allows electronic registration and abstract submittal has been released. The deadline for abstract submittal is March 22. Early registration is encouraged based on initial response and a limit of 500 attendees.
   
   
5. Web site - Features of the new Biomedical Engineering Web site were described. Initial response from the "Feedback" option reflect a broad scope of access and interest among site users. This feature is aimed at providing a mechanism for communicating and disseminating information to the general public, bioengineering researchers, and members of the scientific community.
   
   
6. Topics for the BECON2001 Symposium - BECON members were requested to submit nominations and brief justifications for topics for the 2001 BECON symposium. These nominations will be discussed at the March BECON meeting.