BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING – February 18, 2004

Minutes

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3 to 5 PM on Wednesday, February 18, in Room 151 of Building l on the NIH Main Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The following text provides the minutes for this meeting.

BECON 2003 Symposium Report – The final report of the BECON 2003 Symposium on "Catalyzing Team Science" has been posted on the BECON Web site. Consideration is being given to publishing the report or a version of the report in a major journal (e.g., Science, Chronicles of Higher Education, etc.).

BECON 2004 Symposium Status – Plans are proceeding for the BECON/BISTIC 2004 Symposium on "Biomedical Informatics for Clinical Decision Support: A Vision for the 21^st Century" which is scheduled for June 21-22 at the Natcher Conference Center. A summary of the symposium scope and agenda was distributed at the BECON meeting.

Fourth BRP Grantee Meeting – Planning has started for the Fourth Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) Grantee Meeting which will be scheduled for June 23-24 (l l/2 days) at a local hotel.

Office of Technology Transfer Presentation – Information was distributed to BECON members prior to the meeting concerning a NIH Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) presentation on intellectual property and data sharing issues. Discussion was held concerning whether or not the OTT should be invited to a BECON meeting to discuss these issues. The general discussion was that considering recent initiatives regarding software development and data sharing, a presentation that considered these items along with technology transfer issues in general may be appropriate. This topic will be considered for inclusion in the BECON agenda at a later date.

Status of Consortium Research Model – An update of progress on a consortium research model that would account for "team" and "partnership" issues identified at the BECON 2003 Symposium on Team Science was provided at the meeting.

BECON Status and Logistics – A one-page summary of the BECON member poll concerning meeting logistics was distributed at the meeting. There was no strong consensus about an on-site (Building 1) or an off-site (Rockledge, Democracy, Executive Plaza) location for future BECON meetings. The current plan is to have the next couple of meetings at an off-site location to see if there are real benefits to doing this. Also, a suggestion was made to reduce the meeting times to l l/2 hours instead of the usual 2 hour period.

Next BECON Meeting – The March BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 17, from 3 to 4:30 PM at a location to be determined. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.