BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING – September 17, 2003

The NIH’s Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3 to 5:15 PM on Wednesday, September 17, in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The following text provides the minutes for this meeting.

New BRP Solicitation – A draft of the new Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) solicitation was discussed at the meeting. The draft solicitation will replace PAR-03-032 which ended with the August 22 submittal deadline.

Funding Consortia – A copy of a PowerPoint file on a "Consortium Model to Support Team Science" was distributed and discussed. The proposed model addresses issues involving support and encouragement of team science that have been identified at the June BECON 2003 Symposium on "Catalyzing Team Science", in IOM/NRC reports on large-scale biomedical science and the future of the NIH, and the NIH roadmap effort. Specific issues include support from multiple IC’s, appropriate credit for multiple investigators, project management by grantees, project oversight by the NIH, and evolution of the team effort.

Bioengineering Centers - A concept was described for supporting public/private partnerships for team-oriented biomedical research sponsored by the NIH. The model is similar to one used by the European Community and involves financial and intellectual participation by industrial and public research entities.

BECON2004 Symposium Status -The BECON2004 Symposium is scheduled for June 23-24, 2004, at the Natcher Conference Center. The general topic area is computer-assisted diagnosis and treatment, and a formal title has not yet been developed.

BECON2003 Follow-up – Several meetings in addition to those discussed at the August BECON meeting have been conducted with the EPMC and other NIH staff concerning implementation of some recommendations on facilitating team science that were developed at the BECON2003 Symposium in June. Much of the discussion has been aimed at (l) using the BRPs as a platform to implement team science recommendations, (2) defining the leadership role for multi-organizational, collaborative research, (3) facilitating multi-institute funding of projects of interest to several ICs when the initial award is made, and (4) developing a primer on team science that would include suggestions for developing a research team and examples of successful partnerships mostly based on BRP experience. Implementation of BECON2003 recommendations will continue in the near future, and some items have already been incorporated into the new BRP solicitation.

Nanomedicine Roadmap Implementation – The efforts of the Nanotechnology Roadmap Working Group that has resulted in planned nanomedicine initiatives were acknowledged.

NNI NanoBiotechnlogy Workshop – A two-page summary of a National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Workshop on NanoBiotechnology planned for October 9-11 at the NSF on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, VA, was distributed and discussed. The draft agenda for the meeting consists of plenary talks on nanotechnology applications to biology and medicine and topical sessions on assembly of biological nanosystems, nanotechnology to enhance human health, in-vivo analysis of cellular processes, nanoanalytics and polymers, and advances in imaging technology.

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