BECON MEETING MINUTES
August 22, 2001

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3:30 to 5:00 PM on Wednesday, August 22, 2001, in Wilson Hall in Building l on the NIH Main Campus.  The meeting was an entirely closed session which included discussions of a variety of bioengineering issues.  The following text provides the minutes of this meeting.

Status of BRP Awards and Applications  -  A summary of the status of BRP applications that were considered at the October 2000, January 2001, and May 2001 councils was distributed at the meeting.   Information on  the new BRP grants will be added to the BECON Web site as soon as final verification of the information contained in the distributed tables is obtained.

BECON 2002 Symposium - Initial planning for the BECON 2002 Symposium on Biosensors included a meeting of symposium co-chairs with chairs of prior BECON meetings to discuss schedules, initial preparations, contractor roles and performance, and meeting formats.  The next critical items include selection of extramural co-chairs and conduct of an extramural advisory committee meeting to determine the scope, format, breakout session topics, and possible session chair and plenary speakers.

NSF Awards to ERC Grantees - A one-page summary of two NSF supplemental awards to Engineering Research Center (ERC) grantees was distributed and discussed at the meeting.   

NIH and NSF Training Collaboration  -  A draft report for the June 13-14 NIH/NSF Workshop on Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Training was transmitted to BECON members prior to the meeting.  A one-page executive summary from this report was distributed to BECON members at the meeting.  Current plans are to publish this report on the BECON and BISTI Web sites in the near future.  A meeting of the joint NIH and NSF Training Steering Committee is planned for the near future to determine a course of action and discuss specific initial initiatives.  

DOE and NIH Technical Workshops - Two focused DOE/NIH technical workshops are planned  for early December.   The objectives of these workshops are to communicate to DOE staff needs in biomedical research at the NIH, to communicate to NIH staff DOE capabilities and resources that might be applicable to their problems, and to facilitate partnerships between DOE staff and NIH intramural investigators and extramural program staff for future research efforts.  Programs for these workshops will include plenary presentations and breakout sessions to facilitate one-on-one and small group interaction.   

New BRG and BRP Program Announcements – Drafts of new BRG and BRP program announcements (PA’s) were transmitted to BECON members prior to the August 22 meeting.   Revised BRG and BRP PA’s will be prepared based on meeting discussion and other comments received prior to the meeting and transmitted to BECON members for review and comment. 

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus.  A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.