BECON MEETING MINUTES
May 16, 2001

A meeting of the Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) was held on Wednesday, May 16, 2001, from 3:00 to 4:20 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus. Most of the discussion focused on the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and its impact on current IC grant processes, a NIH/NSF Workshop on Training and Education scheduled for June 14, the BECON 2001 Reparative Medicine Symposium, and the BECON 2002 Biosensors Symposium. The following text is the minutes for this meeting.

Prior to the formal agenda, Wendy Baldwin discussed the transition of the BISTI Consortium (BISTIC) into the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). This transition was announced in an information release transmitted to BECON members by e-mail, and is scheduled to be affected at the start of FY 2002. The NIGMS also has announced the establishment of a Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. James Cassatt (NIGMS) will be the Interim Director of this Center.

The efforts and contributions of Jeff Schloss as co-chair of the BECON 2001 Nanotechnology Symposium were acknowledged by Dr. Baldwin during the meeting. Dr. Schloss was presented with a framed poster for the Nanotechnology Symposium.

1. Status of the NIBIB (Dick Swaja) – Activities related to the establishment of the new Institute are proceeding.
2. BECON 2001 Reparative Medicine Symposium (Lore Anne McNicol) – Activities associated with the June 25-26 Reparative Medicine Symposium are proceeding. A caterer has been selected, and the final advertising poster is complete. Initial copies of the poster were shown at the meeting.
3. BRP-2 Status (Mollie Sourwine) – Some BRP-2 grant applications are currently being considered at the May/June IC councils. Information for the funded grants will be posted on the BECON Web site.
4. BECON Web Site – Members Only Section (Mollie Sourwine) – Information contained in the Members Only portion of the BECON Web site has been updated.
5. NIH/NSF Workshop on Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Education and Training (Dick Swaja) – A joint NIH/NSF Workshop on Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Education, Training, and Career Development is planned for mid-June at NSF Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
6. BECON 2002 Symposium (Wendy Baldwin) – The BECON 2002 (June 24-25, 2002) Symposium will be on biosensors. Volunteers for NIH co-chairs were solicited, and Joan Harmon (NIDDK and NIBIB) and Maren Laughlin (NIDDK) were selected.
7. Future of BECON (Wendy Baldwin) – Discussion was held concerning issues associated with the transition of the BECON into the NIBIB especially as related to the form of the Consortium, the leadership, and its mission.

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building l. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.