A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on Wednesday, September 20, 2000, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus. Most of the discussion was aimed at bioengineering program announcements and the BECON 2001 symposium. The following text describes the proceedings of this meeting.

1. General Information (Wendy Baldwin and Dick Swaja) - The following items of general interest were announced at the meeting:
   
   
   1. A new staff member in the Office of Extramural Research (OER), Mollie Sourwine, was introduced. Ms. Sourwine will be primarily working on bioengineering and bioinformatics activities in the OER.
      
      
   2. The Web site and registration capability for the NICHD Conference titled "Rehabilitation on the Move" scheduled for January 4-5, 2001, is operational and can be reached through the BECON Web site (SYMPOSIA page) or the NICHD Web site.
      
      
   3. Dr. Baldwin briefly discussed House Bill 1795 on the creation of a National Institute for Bioimaging and Bioengineering at the NIH.
      
      
   4. The status of the Office of Bioengineering, Bioimaging, and Bioinformatics (OB³) was also discussed by Dr. Baldwin.
      
      
2. Status of BRP-2 Applications (Dick Swaja) - Scanning of the August 10 BRP-2 applications onto CD's has begun, and the CD's should be ready during the week of September 25.
   
   
3. BRP-3 Program Announcement (Dick Swaja) - At the August BECON meeting, the Consortium consensus was that the BRP solicitation should be reissued for 2001. Work has begun to develop a draft BRP-3 program announcement (PA) that will include a list of contacts at an Internet URL instead of included in the PA text and will be more "user-friendly" to applicants.
   
   
4. Nanotechnology Symposium Summary Report (Jeff Schloss) - The summary report of the June 25-26, 2000, Nanotechnology Symposium is in preparation. Changes have been made to the original breakout section reports, and abstracts of plenary talks are still being received.
   
   
5. BECON 2001 Symposium Status Report (Chris Kelley) - A three-page update of the BECON 2001 symposium on tissuegenesis and organogenesis was distributed and discussed at the meeting.
   
   
6. NSF/NIH Activities (Sohi Rastegar) - In response to prior requests for NIH staff participation in NSF review activities, there have been several contacts and planned NIH staff participation in the near future in program reviews and site visits.
   
   
7. Co-PI's for NIH Projects (Jeff Schloss) - Concern was expressed regarding have one principal investigator (PI) per NIH bioengineering project, and the effect that this policy might have on reflecting credit for the work. In view of the multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational nature of bioengineering projects in particular, it may be desirable to allow more than one PI in some cases. This issue will be considered during internal activities at NIH.
   
   
8. Bioengineering Training Directions (Dick Swaja) - NIH and NSF are planning to pursue cooperative efforts with regard to bioengineering training support. Current plans are for both organizations to have meetings of interested staff within the organization to determine needs and directions concerning bioengineering training that would benefit NIH and NSF and identify possible areas where interagency collaboration might benefit both organizations.
   
   
9. Future BECON Meetings (Dick Swaja) - Topics for future BECON meetings were discussed.
   
   
10. DOE Photonics Workshop (Dean Cole) - The Office of Science in the Department of Energy is planning a workshop on photonics applications to biomedicine on October 27 at the Dulles Marriott Hotel. BECON members and interested NIH staff are invited to attend.
    
    
11. Bioengineering Program Announcements - Significant discussion was aimed at bioengineering research program announcement (BRP's and BRG's) and funding mechanisms (R01, R21, R33). Consensus issues will be addressed in soon-to-be-revised bioengineering program announcements.

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 18, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus.