A meeting of the NIH's Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on Wednesday, August 16, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The entire meeting was a closed (members only) session aimed primarily at discussing new possible research solicitations, the BRP and BRG research grant programs, and several other BECON activities. The following text provides a summary of the proceedings.

1. Nanotechnology Symposium Report Status (Jeff Schloss) - The summary report for the June 25-26 Nanotechnology Symposium is in preparation. Contributions from all the breakout sessions have been submitted and are being revised to the same format. The current objective is to prepare a complete draft report that includes an executive summary and recommendations.

2. BECON 2001 Symposium Planning Status (Chris Kelley and Lore Anne McNicol) - The BECON 2001 Symposium Coordinating Committee had its first meeting on Thursday, August 10. Items discussed included the official title of the conference, broad goals of the symposium, a planning meeting to determine the symposium format and content, subcommittees, and future meetings. The focus of the symposium is tissuegenesis and organogenesis.

3. Bioengineering Review Issues (Eileen Bradley) - Issues associated with ensuring the highest quality of review of bioengineering research grant applications were discussed. Also, names of candidates for members of the bioengeering IRG Oversight Committee were requested.

4. Status of NIH/NSF Collaboration (Debbie Crawford) - Based on a request communicated at the July 19 BECON meeting, several NIH staff have contacted NSF and will serve as reviewers for the IGERT program and the NSF-supported scientific centers. Dr. Crawford indicated that there were still more opportunities available for NIH staff to participate on these NSF committees, and that interested NIH staff should contact her. NSF welcomes the specific expertise provided by NIH staff on the bioengineering and bioinformatics review committees. Dr. Crawford also indicated that NIH staff interested in sitting in on NSF IGERT review panels to see how they work and what criteria are considered are welcome to do so.

5. Innovative Research Program Announcement (Hilary Sigmon) - A draft program announcement supporting innovative bioengineering and bioinformatics research was distributed and discussed.

6. Bioengineering Research Partnerships (Dick Swaja) - A package containing (1) a one-page summary of BRP-2 (January 7 due date) applications and (2) an IMPACII summary of all BRP-2 applications and status for the January 7 deadline was distributed at the meeting. A total of 91 applications were received for the BRP-2 January 7 call.

With regard to the August 10 BRP-2 deadline, a total of 108 applications were received and are currently being assigned to review groups.

A BRP-3 PA was discussed, and the consensus was that this PA should be prepared and issued based on (1) continued high-level of interest by the research community and (2) several strong resubmittals expected by the IC's. The submittal deadlines were recommended to be in early-to-mid January and August 2001.

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 20, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus.