BECON MEETING MINUTES

BECON MEETING - August 17, 2005

Minutes

The NIH Bioengineering Consortium (BECON) met from 3:00 to 4:15 PM on Wednesday, August 17, in Room 7111 of the Rockledge 2 Building in Bethesda , Maryland . The following text is the minutes of this meeting..

•  BRP Grantee Meeting – The Fifth BRP Grantee Meeting was held on August 15-16 at the North Bethesda Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Bethesda , Maryland . About 225 people attended the meeting including approximately 160 BRP grantees and post-docs, BECON members, NIH program staff, and representatives from other agencies. The program consisted of a “NIH Update “ session, poster presentations by all grantees, 24 ten-minute presentations on BRP projects, two featured grantee presentations, and an open discussion session. . A Web site is being prepared that will include a list of attendees, project abstracts, and PowerPoint files of invited presentations.

•  BRP Letters of Intent – A one-page list of the letters of intent received after the July BECON meeting was distributed at the meeting.

•  Status of New BECON BRG and SBIR Solicitations – The Bioengineering Research Grant (BRG) solicitation (PA-02-011) is still in effect although the indicated expiration date is October 2004. The BRG solicitation was extended by NIH Guide notice NOT-EB-04-003 (dated October 8, 2004 ) until the new solicitation is issued. Receipt dates are the same as the regular R01 dates of February 1, June 1, and October 1 of each year. Plans are to release the new SBIR nanotechnology announcement in the NIH Guide during the first week of September. The first receipt date is December 1.

•  Team Science Activities – A one page summary of NIH interdisciplinary research issues, needs, and solutions was distributed at the meeting. The value of interdisciplinary research is obvious, and the NIH needs to accommodate unsolicited research that is important to the mission of the agency but not necessarily of particular importance to one institute or center. With regard to multiple PI issues, a RFI has been issued in the NIH Guide that describes approaches to dealing with multiple PI's. The RFI closes for public comment in mid-September. Plans are to implement multiple PI protocols in the near future (possibly May 2006).

•  BECON 2006 Symposium Topic – Several candidates for a BECON 2006 symposium topic were identified and discussed. Suggestions included (l) a retrospective on bioengineering (basically an update to the first BECON symposium that was held eight years ago), (2) bridging the sciences (i.e., research at the interface of the life and physical sciences), and (3) public-private partnerships.

Next BECON Meeting – The next BECON meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 21, in Room 7111 of the Rockledge 2 Building in Bethesda , Maryland . A preliminary agenda will be available about a week before the meeting.