A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on Wednesday, January 17, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus. The meeting consisted of a "closed" business session and an "open" session which included a presentation on imaging in high magnetic fields by Dr. Thomas Budinger of the University of California-Berkeley. The following text describes the proceedings of this meeting.

Closed Session (3-4 PM):

1. Status of the new Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering (Donna Dean) -The establishment of the new institute was discussed. The Institute is not expected to be fully operational until FY2002. BECON activities, including program announcements and the annual symposium, will continue as usual for the near future (at least through Fiscal Year 2001). Questions concerning the new Institute should be directed to Donna Dean (DeanD1@ad.nih.gov or 301-435-6138).
   
   
2. BRP-3 Letters of Intent (Mollie Sourwine) - BECON received 82 letters of intent for the January 16, 2001 deadline for the Bioengineering Research Partnership program announcement (PA-01-024). BRP applications are due at the NIH on February 16, 2001.
   
   
3. BECON 2001 Reparative Medicine Symposium (Chris Kelley and Lore Anne McNicol) - The Web site for the BECON 2001 symposium is active and can be accessed through the BECON Web site (SYMPOSIA page) or at the following url: http://www.masimax.com/becon/index.html. The call for exhibits has been posted, and the call for abstracts will appear in the January 26 issue of Science.
   
   
4. Nanotechnology Activities (Eleni Kousvelari) - Eleni Kousvelari thanked all of the BECON members who volunteered to be part of the "Nanotechnology Champions" program. The plan for the next 5 years of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is being prepared.
   
   
5. Grant Funding Issues (Mark Rohrbaugh) - The issue of paying Federal employees salaries as part of NIH research grants was discussed.
   
   
6. BRP Grantee Meeting (Dick Swaja) - The first annual BRP grantee meeting is scheduled for March 23, 2001. The agenda for the meeting will include time for brief grantee presentations, information presentations, and roundtable discussions.
   
   
7. NIH/NSF Collaborative Training Initiative (Dick Swaja) - A joint NIH/NSF meeting was held on Friday, January 12 at the NIH. Efforts to determine needs and areas for initial collaborations are continuing.

Open Session (4-5 PM):

Dr. Thomas Budinger gave a presentation on "The Feasibility of 12 Tesla Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Metabolic Studies". He discussed opportunities and benefits associated with magnetic resonance imaging at very high magnetic fields and possible collaborative efforts in this area. Dr. Budinger is Professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California-Berkeley and a senior research staff member at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Next BECON Meeting:

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 21, from 3-5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.