BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING – February 19, 2003

Public Minutes

Minutes

The NIH’s Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3 to 5 PM on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 in Wilson Hall of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus. The following text provides the minutes of this meeting.

1. BECON 2003 Symposium - Many of the plenary speakers have been confirmed and the committee is currently working on invitations to breakout session moderators. The symposium website has been posted and registration is currently open. The website can be accessed through symposium page of the BECON site (http://www.becon.nih.gov/symposium2003.htm). A press release was published through the NIH and DHHS and posted on the NIH homepage (http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2003/nibib-12.htm).

2. BRP Grantee Meeting - The BRP Grantee Meeting is scheduled for June 25-26 at the Bethesda Marriott on Pooks Hill Road. The meeting will begin at noon on June 25^th (immediately following the BECON 2003 symposium) and run through noon on June 26^th.

3. Bioengineering Materials and Applications (BEMA) Roundtable - The BEMA Roundtable is planning a workshop on “Science-Based Assessment: Accelerating Product Development of Combination Medical Devices” which will be held on April 22-23, 2003 at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, DC. .

4. NanoBio Workshop Update - A workshop aimed at developing a vision for the future of nanobiotechnology is being planned for June 3-5, 2003. The location has not yet been determined. The planning committee consists of representatives from the NIH, NSF, USDA, FDA, NASA and the extramural scientific community. The program will consist of five sessions: (Eleni is sending titles)

5. Review of Nanotechnology Applications - Applications for the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine program (PAR-03-045) were due at the NIH on February 1, 2003.

6. CSR Organization and Status - An update was provided on the status of the organization of the CSR bioengineering integrated review groups (IRGs) and study sections. There will be two new IRGS that will handle of many of the bioengineering applications reviewed by CSR. The new IRGs are Bioengineering Sciences & Technologies (BST) and Surgical Science, Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering (SBIB).

7. BECON 2004 Symposium Topic - Several concepts were discussed as possible topics for the BECON 2004 symposium. The topics for BECON should take into account that BISTIC is also launching a symposium series, the first of which will be in November 2003 and will cover Bioinformatics, broadly. Suggested topics include: Theoretical Basis for Bioengineering/Design, Future of Surgery, Computer-Assisted Diagnosis, and High-Resolution Imaging. White papers on each of these topics will be circulated to the BECON for discussion at the next BECON meeting.

Announcements:

1. There will be a discussion of the next release of the Bioengineering Research Partnership program at the March BECON meeting.

2. The Bioengineering Funding Opportunities at the NIH section of BECON website has been updated.

3. A summary of the NIH funding for bioengineering and nanotechnology from FY1997 to FY2004 was distributed.

4. There is a request for high-impact success stories in the area of nanotechnology to be reported through the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).

Next BECON Meeting - The March BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday March 19, from 3 to 5 PM in room 151 in Building l on the NIH Main Campus. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.