BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING - May 18, 2005

Minutes

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met on Wednesday, May 18, from 3 to 4:30 PM in Room 7111 of the Rockledge 2 Building in Bethesda, Maryland . The following text is the minutes of this meeting.

1. Report of BECON/BISTIC 2004 Symposium – The final report of the BECON/BISTIC 2004 Symposium on “Biomedical Informatics for Clinical Decision Support: A Vision for the 21 st Century” has been released on the BECON Web site at http://www.becon.nih.gov/symposia_2004/becon2004_final_report.doc . Symposium co-chairs were Drs. Larry Clarke (NCI) and Peter Lyster (NIGMS).



2. Extensions of BRG and K-25 Programs - Two notices were released in the “NIH Guide” during the week of May 2 to extend the BRG and K25 programs until new solicitations are released. The BRG notice (NOT-EB-05-005) was released on May 4, and the K25 notice (NOT-OD-05-047) was released on May 3. The next BRG application deadline is June 1.



3. Fifth BRP Grantee Meeting - The final dates and location for the Fifth BRP Grantee Meeting is August 15-16 (a Monday and Tuesday) at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center . Plans a re to have a l l/2 day meeting that includes oral and poster presentations, a NIH update, and adequate time for grantee interaction. Grantees have been contacted, and a preliminary agenda will be sent to BECON members in the near future.



4. Team Science Issues - Recent activities at NIH to address team science issues such as multiple PI's and assignment of applications that do not fit the mission of any one institute were discussed.



5. NNI Update - An update on NNI activities was presented and included the following:



• Examples of nanotechnology research that leads to improvements in medical care, or particularly key research insights, are important indicators of the taxpayer's return on investment. ).



• The following documents related to the NNI (National Nanotechnology Initiative) have been released and are available on the NNI website ( www.nano.gov ). For each one, some items of particular relevance to NIH are highlighted.

6. Nanotechnology SBIR PA - The SBIR PA is being revised for renewal. There was discussion about whether this PA needed to be renewed. Final consensus was that there was some value in having a PA available for this topic.



7. BECON 2006 Symposium - An e-mail poll of representatives from each IC did not lead to a clear front-runner topic from the list of 11 proposed topics. There was an extended discussion as to whether the next symposium should focus on the general problem of facilitating the biology-engineering interface, or be focused on a scientific topic and deal with the cultural gap as a secondary issue.

Next BECON Meeting – The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, from 3 to 4:30 PM in Room 7111 of Rockledge 2 in Bethesda , Maryland . Please note that this is the fourth Wednesday in June, and that BECON meetings are usually held on the third Wednesday of the month. A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.