BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING - OCTOBER 20, 2004

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3:00 to 4:35 PM on Wednesday, October 20, 2004, in Room 7111 at the Rockledge 2 Building in Bethesda, Maryland. The following text is the minutes of this meeting.

BRG Program Announcement - A notice (NOT-EB-04-003) was issued in the "NIH Guide" to extend the Bioengineering Research Grant (BRG) program announcement (PA-02-011) to March 2005. The current announcement ended on October 1, 2004. The extension allows for one additional new application receipt date (February 1, 2005) and two addition revised application dates of November 1, 2004, and March 1, 2005. A new BRG program announcement is in preparation.

BRP Evaluation Subcommittee - A summary of results of an evaluation of the Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) program was transmitted to BECON members prior to the meeting. There was substantial discussion concerning the meaning of the results in view of (1) differences in interpretation of the questions by different program directors and (2) criteria for evaluating the program. Considering the utility of this evaluation, a third-party evaluation may be necessary.

Team Science Activities - The BECON and NIH Team Science Committees met during the week of October 11 to discuss issues resulting from meetings with university representatives and NIH staff. Efforts will continue to develop and implementation plan for team science recommendations.

Symposium Topic Committee - The BECON Subcommittee met once since the September BECON meeting, and no consensus was reached on a topic for the BECON 2005 symposium. Considering time remaining until June 2005, this issue needs to be resolved by the Subcommittee by the November BECON meeting..

Conference on Bridging the Sciences - A one-page prospectus on a one-day (November 9) conference on "Research at the Interface of the Life and Physical Sciences: Bridging the Sciences" was distributed at the meeting.

Future Roles of the BECON - The topic of future roles of the BECON created most of the discussion at the meeting. This topic will be a primary item of discussion at the November BECON meeting.

Next BECON Meeting - The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17, from 3 to 4:30 PM in Room 7111 of the Rockledge 2 Building. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.