BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING – January 21, 2004

Minutes

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3 to 4:45 PM in Room 151 of Building 1 on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The following text is the minutes for this meeting.

•  BRP Application Deadline and Letters of Intent – The first deadline for BRP applications in response to solicitation PAR-04-023 is January 21, the date of the meeting. About 65 letters of intent were received for the January 21 deadline.

•  NIBIB/DOE Workshop on Biomedical Engineering – A NIBIB/DOE Workshop on Biomedical Imaging is scheduled for February 10-11 at the Marriott Pooks Hill Hotel in Bethesda. The meeting will focus on optical and x-ray technologies and their applications to biological and medical research.

•  Research Business Model – There was no new progress to report on the development of a research business model the was discussed at the December BECON meeting.

•  BECON 2003 Report - A draft of the BECON 2003 Symposium on Catalyzing Team Science report was transmitted to all participants for review and comment. Plans to publish the BECON 2003 report were discussed. Several key academicians who participated in the symposium will be contacted for their suggestions of a venue for publishing the summary report.

•  BECON 2004 Symposium – Plans are proceeding for the BECON 2004 Symposium which is scheduled for June 21-22 at the Natcher Center on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda. The Symposium Coordinating Committee meets every two weeks and is in the process of developing a list of candidate speakers for the meeting. General chairs have been selected and confirmed, plenary and breakout session topics have been selected, and a preliminary prospectus has been prepared and transmitted to BECON and BISTIC members for review and comment.

•  CSR Consideration of BRP Applications – With the reorganization of the integrated review groups (IRG's) and study sections of the CSR, assignments of some BRP applications have changed. Most BRP applications will be considered in the cardiovascular; muscular, oral, and skin; surgical, biomedical imaging, and bioengineering; and bioengineering science and technology IRG's.

•  Research at the Interface of the Physical and Life Sciences – A trans-NIH initiative to conduct an inter-agency conference aimed at addressing how agencies can address issues and challenges associated with research at the interface of the physical and life sciences was discussed.

•  New Location for BECON Meetings – The need to change to meeting locations to accommodate members driving to meetings was discussed. An e-mail poll of BECON members will be taken to determine if future meeting locations should be changed.

•  New BECON Chair – Jeff Schloss, chair of the BECON since 2001, officially turned over the position to Dan Sullivan at the end of the meeting. In his closing remarks, Dr. Schloss distributed the original mandate letter for the BECON (from Harold Varmus in 1997) and the minutes of the first BECON meeting. He also discussed contributions of the BECON and its value to the NIH and bioengineering communities. Dr. Schloss received an award from the BECON to acknowledge his dedication and contributions to the Consortium and the field of bioengineering in general. Dr. Sullivan thanked Dr. Schloss for his contributions and described his initial priorities .