BECON MEETING MINUTES
September 19, 2001

The NIH's Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3 to 5 PM on Wednesday, September 19, 2001, in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus. The meeting was an entirely closed session aimed primarily at discussing a position paper on NIH bioengineering application review and the future of the BECON. The following text provides the minutes of this meeting.

This was the last BECON meeting chaired by Dr. Wendy Baldwin who has been the chair of the Consortium since its establishment in February of 1997. Dr. Jeff Schloss of the National Human Genome Research Institute was named as the new BECON chair. Dr. Baldwin will remain with the Consortium in an ex-officio capacity.

BECON Future (Wendy Baldwin) - Dr. Wendy Baldwin named Dr. Jeff Schloss of the NHGRI as the new chair of the BECON. She will remain with the BECON in an ex-officio capacity. Administration of the BECON will be by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering with Dick Swaja and Mollie Sourwine remaining as executive secretaries. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Baldwin was given a standing ovation by the Consortium members in recognition and appreciation of her dedicated and effective leadership.

BECON 2002 Biosensors Symposium - The first BECON 2002 Coordinating Committee meeting was held on September 12. Current needs and a course of action for the Symposium were discussed. Current objectives are to determine members of the extramural advisory committee, to plan the advisory committee meeting (tentatively in October), to determine the technical scope of the conference, and to select extramural co-chairs.

National Nanotechnology Initiative - The status of the National Nanotechnology Initiative was discussed along with the status of related NIH research efforts.

Status of BRP Awards - There are 24 new BRP grants for a total of 58 (34 for the March 23 Grantee Meeting and 24 afterward). Information on the new grants will be posted on the NIH Bioengineering Web site in the near future.

NIH/NSF Training Collaboration - The Joint NIH/NSF Training Steering Committee met on August 23 to discuss recommendations from the June 13-14 NIH/NSF Workshop which was held at NSF Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The final report of this workshop including recommendations was released on the BECON and BISTI Web sites on August 24.

Bioengineering Review Position Paper (Michael Weinrich) - As discussed at the August BECON meeting, a subcommittee was formed to prepare a draft position paper on the review of bioengineering grants applications.

The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17, 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.