A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on Wednesday, November 14, 2000, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus. Most of the discussion was aimed at discussion of a bioengineering training collaboration with NSF and the annual BRP grantee meeting. The following text describes the proceedings of this meeting.

1. Update on OB³ and the Bioengineering Institute (Wendy Baldwin) - With Congress still in session, the institute bill remains an open question. Plans for OB³ are continuing.



2. Nanotechnology Activities (Jeff Schloss and Eleni Kousvelari) –


1. The report from the Nanotechnology Symposium has been revised considering comments from BECON and should be submitted for posting on the BECON website in the next couple of weeks.



2. Jeff Schloss and Eleni Kousvelari are working to revise the language for the Nanotechnology Champions program to better specify what member roles will entail.


3. BRP-3 Status (Dick Swaja) –


1. The BRP-3 program announcement was posted on the ENS on Oct 27^th and should be released any day. Keep checking the "NIH Guide".



2. Dr. Baldwin presented Dick Swaja with an award for his contributions to BECON and bioengineering at NIH during the past year.


4. BECON 2001 Reparative Medicine Symposium (Chris Kelley and Lore Anne McNicol) – A planning meeting was held on October 30 with outside advisors and the basic framework for the symposium was established.



5. Bioengineering Training Initiatives - NSF/NIH Collaboration


1. A prospectus for a one-day workshop at NIH, to be held jointly with NSF, was discussed. The goal of the workshop is to identify training needs of the bioengineering community and how they could be addressed by NIH and NSF.



2. In addition to the workshop, members should start thinking about bioengineering training initiatives that could be coordinated by BECON.


6. BRP Grantee Meeting (Dick Swaja)


1. A prospectus for the first annual BRP Grantee meeting was distributed and discussed. It was agreed that the meeting should be organized thematically and include facilitated discussions on cross-cutting issues such as teamwork, leadership, policies, technology transfer, and training.

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 20, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. A preliminary agenda will be issued about a week before the meeting.