BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING – April 17, 2002

Public Minutes

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met on Wednesday, April 17, 2002, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The following text provides the minutes for this meeting.

January BRP Applications – CD’s containing Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) applications received on the January 24, 2002, deadline were distributed to BECON members at the March meeting. Additional cd’s are available for BECON members.

BISTIC Software Development Program Announcement – The Chair of the NIH BISTI Consortium (BISTIC) discussed a draft BISTIC program announcement (PA) titled “Development and Maintenance of Bioinformatics and Biomedical Computing Software”. Although developed by the BISTIC, the draft PA is also of interest to the BECON.

BRP Grantee Meeting – The Second BRP Grantee Meeting was conducted during March 24-25 at the Bethesda Hyatt Hotel. A total of 110 attendees, which included 58 grantees, participated in the program which included 5-minute presentations on BRP projects, focused plenary sessions, and topical breakout discussions. A Web site containing the meeting proceedings, grantee presentations, and plenary presentations is now available on the BECON Web site (SYMPOSIA page).

SBIR Examples – Examples of SBIR success stories were requested for a presentation at a session on biotechnology during a June SBIR conference.

BECON 2002 Symposium Status – Plans for the June 24-25 BECON 2002 Symposium on Sensors are proceeding on schedule. All plenary speakers have been selected and committed, and the topical breakout sessions are almost complete with regard to panelists and moderators. Details are available on the SYMPOSIUM page of the BECON Web site at www.becon.nih.gov .

Publication of BECON 2001 Proceedings – A volume (approximately 400 pages) of the proceedings of the BECON 2001 Tissue Engineering Symposium to be published in the New York Academy Annals. Information contained in this volume will include breakout session summaries, abstracts of posters, plenary speaker papers, and general recommendations.

BECON K-25 Program Announcement - The latest version of a draft K-25 PA was distributed to BECON members prior to the meeting. This draft will be submitted as the new BECON K-25 announcement following receipt and evaluation of members’ comments.

New BRP and BRG Program Announcements - There was discussion concerning the future BRP and BRG program announcements. The current BRG PA expires at the end of calendar year 2002 (after the October l deadline), and the current BRP announcement ends with the August 12, 2002, deadline.

Additional Items - The following items were not on the formal meeting agenda, but were discussed at the end of the meeting:

NIST Advanced Technology Program Announcement – Copies of the NIST announcement of their Advanced Technology Program (ATP) were distributed at the meeting. Details of the ATP are also available on the NIST Web site.

American Institute of Physics Meeting – The American Institute of Physics will conduct a meeting titled “Opportunities in Biology for Physicists”aimed in Boston during September 27-29, 2002. Details are available on the Internet at www.aps.org/meet/biology-physics/.

NIH/DoD Bioterrorism Conference – A NIH/DoD Bioterrorism Conference is scheduled for April 29-30 in Crystal City (Marriott Hotel) to discuss related research needs in the biomedical area.

Nanotechnology Meeting – A bio-nanotechnology meeting is scheduled for April 29-May 1 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Details of this conference are available on the Internet at www.infocastinc.com/Nanotech/home.htm .

Next BECON Meeting – The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, from 3 to 5 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. A preliminary agenda will be available about one week before the meeting.