**BES**

**STRATEGIC PLAN**

**May 25, 2005**

**BES**

**Strategic Plan**

**[Table of Contents]{.underline}**

> Structure and Funding
> Profile................................................3
>
> The BES
> Team...............................................................\...4
>
> Planning Methodology /
> Process.............................................5
>
> Vision............................................................................6
>
> Mission........................................................................\...8
>
> Strategies and
> Goals......................................................\......9
>
> SWOT
> Analysis...............................................................17
>
> External
> Environment.........................................................18
>
> Priorities........................................................................19
>
> New Money
> Needs............................................................20
>
> Appendices.....................................................................21

**Structure and Funding Profile**

The Bioengineering and Environmental Systems (BES) Division supports
research, innovation, and education in the rapidly evolving fields of
bioengineering and environmental engineering. BES has two principal
objectives. The first objective is to enable and facilitate the
deployment of new innovations in BES's fields in service to society, for
use in the medical, biotechnology, and environmental arenas (for
examples, see the write-ups on Bob Langer and Chaitan Khosla in ENG's
new color brochure, " Making Imagination Real"). The second objective is
to advance bioengineering and environmental engineering education,
particularly through the development of creative, high quality programs
by new faculty (example: BES's heavy emphasis on CAREER awards; Kristi
Anseth, a BES CAREER grantee, just won the 2004 Waterman Award, and
Rebecca Richard-Kortum, a BES PYI, won the 2002 HHMI Million Dollar
Undergraduate Educator Award).

The BES Division focuses on its objectives through three programmatic
clusters, each allocated approximately 1/3 of BES's overall annual
budget of about \$50 million/year. The three BES clusters are: (1)
Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology (BEB), (2) Biomedical Engineering
and Research to Aid Persons with and Disabilities (BME/RAPD), and (3)
Environmental Engineering and Technology (EET). Current BES
high-emphasis research and education areas include Quantitative Systems
Biotechnology (QSB), revolutionary new approaches to environmental
research and education (such as the Collaborative Large-scale
Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research \[CL*EAN*ER\]
and Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society \[MUSES\]),
biophotonics, tissue engineering, and nanobiosystems. These
high-emphasis areas are built on a continuing base that includes
biomaterials, biomechanics, controlled release, bioimaging, biosensors,
medical devices and instrumentation, artificial organs,
neuroengineering, therapeutic agent bioprocessing, industrial
bioproducts bioprocessing, water and waste treatment, industrial
ecology, bioremediation, and modeling.

Within the U.S. and international research communities, BES has played a
key role in catalyzing the start-up and development of highly promising
new cutting edge bioengineering and environmental engineering research
fields, such as tissue engineering and metabolic engineering. BES has
also led the formation of interagency coordination and collaboration
partnerships in these fields, including the Multi-Agency Tissue
Engineering Science (MATES) Working Group
([http://tissueengineering.gov](http://tissueengineering.gov/)) and the
Metabolic Engineering Working Group
([http://www.metabolicengineering.gov](http://www.metabolicengineering.gov/)).
The NSF/DARPA/NIH Biophotonics Partnership
(<http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf0130>) is another joint effort
initiated by BES.

A major portion of the research and education funded through the BES
Division is built on the explosive output coming from ongoing
revolutionary developments in the biological and information sciences.
For example, genomics is an entirely new resource of a wealth of
information that will enable important engineering advances in the
medical, biotechnology, and environmental arenas, all within the scope
of BES. These engineering advances will result in direct and significant
improvements in the health, environmental, and economic welfare of
society.

A consolidated financial spreadsheet for BES is provided in Appendix 1.
As of December 2004, BES's portfolio consisted of 535 active awards,
totaling to \$153 million (includes funds for multi-year awards); detail
is provided in Appendix 2. Key BES proposal and award data are presented
in Appendix 3.

**The BES Team**

Currently, BES has a total of 12 ***program officers***, with one of
these serving as the Acting Division Director. Four of the program
officers are part-time. Of the total of 12 program officers, 6 are
associated directly with specific universities, and the remaining 6 are
career NSF employees:

Pat Brezonik (IPA from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities)

Lenore Clesceri (part-time Expert from RPI)

Semahat Demir (Visiting Engineer from the University of Memphis)

Mike Domach (part-time IPA from CMU)

Gil Devey (part-time NSF career staff)

Cindy Ekstein (NSF career staff)

Leon Esterowitz (NSF career staff)

Bruce Hamilton (NSF career staff, Acting Division Director)

Fred Heineken (NSF career staff)

Marshall Lih (NSF career staff)

Tom Waite (IPA from the University of Miami)

Bill Weigand (part-time Expert from the University of Maryland-College
Park)

BES has a ***support staff*** of 8:

Toni Baker, Program Assistant

Eula Patterson, Division Secretary

Sunny Phelps, Science Assistant

LaWanda Prailow, Office Services Assistant

Marcia Rawlings, IT Specialist

Joyce Simpson, Administrative Officer

Sherri Swann, Program Specialist

LaTanya Darby, Program Assistant

***This BES Team of program officers and support staff*** works closely
together on division operations (e.g., proposal review, processing,
award, and post-award monitoring) and formulation and implementation of
division strategy.

##### Planning Methodology / Process

***Two Division Retreats*** have been held very recently for strategic
planning purposes. The first was an all-day event held on October 29,
2004. It was attended by almost all of the program officers and senior
support staff. The second was for a half-day, held on the afternoon of
December 15, 2004. It was attended by most of the program officers (some
were on travel) and some of the senior support staff (some were pulled
away by pressing work loads). Additionally, BES's clusters hold frequent
meetings where strategy is discussed, and BES's Acting Division
Director, program officers, and senior support staff are continually
involved in ongoing strategy discussions.

***Workshops, often held on university campuses,*** ***involving
industry and government agencies,*** have greatly contributed to
strategic planning in BES. For example, for CL*EAN*ER, a series of 6
workshops was held on campuses across the country (Stanford, University
of Minnesota --Twin Cities, Duke (2), University of Iowa, and RPI). In
addition, a CL*EAN*ER-related national symposium, Frontiers of Advanced
Methods for the Environment (FAME), was held at the University of
Minnesota-Twin Cities, and an international workshop with Italy was held
in Washington, DC. An example of industry involvement is a workshop held
by BES at NSF on "Future Directions of Biochemical Engineering," which
included participants from leading biotech companies (Amgen, Biogen,
Genencor, Chiron, Genetics Institute) as well as small business
involvement. Additonally**,** BES program officers frequently hold
post-panel meetings with visiting reviewers to discuss program and
solicitation strategy.

***Interagency meetings*** are another important source of input for BES
strategy formulation. An example is the interagency meeting that BES
co-organized with NIBIB on "The Interface of the Life Sciences and
Physical Sciences," held May 10, 2004, and attended by representatives
of 10 federal agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA, DOD, EPA, NIST, FDA,
NOAA). This was followed by a national symposium held on November 9,
2004 in Bethesda, attended by approximately 170 people from across the
country.

***Cross-Division and Cross-Directorate meetings and contacts*** greatly
impact BES strategy. For example, this is how the CL*EAN*ER-CUAHSI
Partnership was formed with GEO. It is also how CMS, CTS and CISE became
major supporters of the new interagency solicitation led by BES on
multi-scale modeling, and how other ENG divisions and BIO, MPS, and CISE
became involved in the QSB solicitation led by BES. The same is true for
the interagency Metabolic Engineering solicitation and the Multi-Agency
Tissue Engineering and Science (MATES) Working Group, both led by BES.

***ENG AdCom and COV members*** impact BES strategy by providing
consultation and advice. Over the past few years, some of the AdCom
members who have generously offered strategic insights have included
Steve Drew (former AdCom Chair, from Merck), Costel Denson (former AdCom
member and BES COV chair, from University of Delaware), Lisa
Alvarez-Cohen (current AdCom member, from UC-Berkeley), Joan Brennecke
(current AdCom, member from Notre Dame), Tom O'Rourke (current AdCom
member, from Cornell), Kristina Johnson (current AdCom member and former
AdCom chair, from Duke), Sangtae Kim (former AdCom member, then from Eli
Lilly), Chris Busch (current AdCom member, former SBIR circuit rider),
Larry McIntire (current AdCom member and BES COV chair, from Georgia
Tech-Emory), and Debra Knopman (current AdCom member and BES COV
vice-chair, from RAND Scientific).

***Professional societies and topical meetings*** impact BES strategy
through BES's program officers. BES program officers are active in
numerous professional societies, in some cases serving as officers or
journal editors. Because BES covers three engineering disciplines
(Biochemical, Biomedical, and Environmental), an usually large number of
professional societies and topical meeting are involved, including, but
not limited to, AIChE, AIMBE, AEESP, WEF, IEEE, ASCE, BMES, ASEE, ACS,
SWE, and WEPAN.

**Vision**

BES's aspiration for the future, perhaps 5 years from now, is for BES to
be viewed as follows:

###### BES VISION:

**"BES is an important and significant *[catalytic driver]{.underline}*
for the role of *biology and the environment* in advancing the
*frontiers of engineering* research, innovation, and education."**

Current BES examples of moving toward this vision include:

(1) [Biology and Engineering]{.underline}:

    a.  BES co-leads the interagency forum on the interface of the
        biological sciences and physical sciences (e.g., May 10, 2004
        workshop, see:

> <http://www.nibib1.nih.gov/events/interagency/interagencyreport.pdf> ;
>
> November 9, 2004 conference, see:
>
> <http://www.nibib1.nih.gov/news/interfaceprospectusfinal.pdf> .

b.  BES leads the interagency Metabolic Engineering Working Group (MEWG)

> ([http://www.metabolicengineering.gov](http://www.metabolicengineering.gov/))
> and the interagency solicitation on
>
> funding opportunities for research on Metabolic Engineering
>
> (<http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsf05502/nsf05502.htm>) .

c.  BES leads the NSF interdirectorate (ENG, BIO, CISE, MPS)
    solicitation on Quantitative Systems Biotechnology (QSB).

d.  BES leads the Multi-Agency Tissue Engineering Science (MATES)
    Working Group
    ([www.tissueengineering.gov](http://www.tissueengineering.gov/) ),
    which includes 8 agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE, NIST, FDA, DARPA, NASA,
    CMS) and OSTP.

e.  BES co-leads the new interagency solicitation on multi-scale
    modeling in biomedical, biological, and behavioral systems

> (<http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04607/nsf04607.htm>).

f.  BES co-leads the interagency Image-Guided Interventions (IGI)
    working group, which so far has organized two interagency workshops
    (see, for example:
    [http://www.nibib.nih.gov/events/IGI2004/IGI%20Workshop%20Final%20Report.pdf](http://www.nibib.nih.gov/events/IGI2004/IGI Workshop Final Report.pdf)
    ).

> \(g\) BES is co-funding, with DMII, NIBIB, and the Robert Wood Johnson
>
> Foundation, an ongoing NAE / IOM study on "Engineering Health Care
>
> Delivery."

(2) [Environment and Engineering]{.underline}:

    a.  BES leads the ENG effort on the Collaborative Large-scale
        Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research
        (CL*EA*NER), with merger with GEO's CUAHSI under way (see:

> <http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03607/nsf03607.htm> ).

b.  BES co-leads, with DMII, the NSF interdirectorate effort on
    Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society (MUSES; see:

> <http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03597/nsf03597.htm#muses> ).

##### There are three reasons why *BES emphasizes* *the role of catalytic driver* rather then attempting to, on its own, "do it all":

##### The resources required for covering engineering's involvement in biology and the environment hugely exceed those available to BES.

(1) At NSF, the involvement of engineering with *biology* and *the
    environment* has become pervasive, going well beyond BES.

> For example, relative to *biology and engineering*, all 6 ENG
> divisions, as well as ENG's
>
> Office of Industrial Innovation (OII), currently support
> biology-oriented awards:

a.  BES: All aspects of biology in engineering

b.  CMS: Biomechanical engineering (e.g., bone biomaterials)

c.  CTS: Biotransport engineering (e.g. blood flow fluid dynamics) and
    biocatalytic

> engineering (e.g., biorenewables)

d.  DMII: Engineering health care delivery

e.  ECS: Many aspects of biology in engineering (e.g., biomedical
    imaging)

f.  EEC: Centers, Department Level Reform involving biology in
    engineering

g.  OII: The SBIR/STTR Biotechnology (BT) topic

> Furthermore, CISE supports engineering/biology-oriented awards. An
> example is ITR Award 0205741, "Simulation-Based Medical Planning for
> Cardiovascular Disease," PI = Charles Taylor, Department of
> Bioengineering, Stanford University, award amount \$3.7 million over 5
> years.
>
> Additionally, EHR also supports engineering/biology-oriented awards.
> An example is Award 0231313, "Development of Educational Materials
> that Strengthen Students' Problem-Solving Skills for a Bioengineering
> Fundamentals Course" (for undergraduates), PI = Ann Saterbak, Rice
> University, \$75,000 over 2 years.
>
> Relative to *the environment and engineering,* many examples can be
> listed that illustrate involvement throughout ENG and NSF, going far
> beyond BES. Just a few examples include environmental sensor and
> sensor network research, sustainability and technology for a
> sustainable environment, environmentally benign manufacturing and
> industrial ecology, and environmental nanotechnology.

(2) The richness that results from vibrant "cross-fertilization"
    involving BES with other divisions, directorates, agencies, and
    organizations is readily evident.

##### Mission

BES has a two-part mission statement:

***[BES MISSION]{.underline}:***

-   **[Research and Innovation]{.underline}.** Enable and facilitate the
    deployment of new innovations in BES's fields in service to society
    for use in the medical, biotechnology, and environmental arenas.

-   **[Education]{.underline}.** Advance bioengineering and
    environmental engineering through the development of creative, high
    quality integrated research and education programs by new and
    diverse faculty (example: BES's emphasis on CAREER awards \[see
    Appendix 4\], including under-represented group PECASE awardees
    \[see Appendix 5\] ).

Relative to ***research and innovation**,* some of BES's PI's have done
outstandingly well at making the connection between the two. Some
examples are given in the new color brochure on "Making Imagine Real,"
put out by ENG Adcom. In particular, the brochure covers BES PI's Bob
Langer and Chaitan Khosla, and how they have connected their research to
the creation of vibrant start-up technology companies.

Relative to ***education***, again BES PI's have done very well. An
example is Rebecca Richard-Kortum, winner in 2002 of the HHMI Million
Dollar Undergraduate Educator Award.

#### Strategies and Goals

> To pursue BES's Vision and Mission, the BES Team has evolved 7 key
> strategies, each with associated goals:
>
> **[Key Strategy #1:]{.underline}** *Develop and support the best and
> the brightest researchers, innovators, and educators in BES's fields,
> with one emphasis being on new faculty.*
>
> Some recent examples of the results of this strategy include:

-   In 2004, two BES PIs, both supported by BES beginning in their young
    faculty years, and both from under-represented groups, were elected
    to the ***National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM***): Cato
    Laurencin (African-American professor at UVA) and Frances Arnold
    (woman professor at Cal Tech).

-   Two BES PIs won recent ***NSF Waterman awards***: in 2004, Kristi
    Anseth (1998 BES CAREER awardee, from the University of Colorado at
    Boulder) and in 1999, Chaitan Khosla (1994 BES NSF Young
    Investigator awardee, from Stanford University). Dr. Anseth is the
    only woman engineer to have won a Waterman Award since the inception
    of the award 30 years ago.

-   In 2002, Rebecca Richards-Kortum (1991 BES PYI) won the ***HHMI
    Million Dollar Undergaduate Educator Award.***

-   In 2002, a BES PI supported beginning with his faculty career, was
    ***elected to the NAE***: Tom Graedel (Yale University).

-   In 2000, Frances Arnold was elected to the NAE. She is one of the
    few woman NAE members. She was selected as a PYI in 1989 by BCS, the
    precursor of BES.

-   In 2002, a long-time BES PI beginning with his early faculty career,
    Bob Langer (MIT), won the ***NAE Draper Prize***, which *Science*
    magazine has called "the Nobel Prize of Engineering." Bob was
    previously ***elected to all three arms of the National Academies:
    NAE, NAS, and IOM,*** and won the 1998 ***Lemelson Invention
    Prize***.

-   In 2005, two NSF PIs were elected to the NAE: George Georgiou
    (selected by BCS, the precursor to BES, as a 1987 PYI) and Harvey
    Blanch (a long-time BES PI).

> Data on BES's recent CAREER awards are presented in Appendix 4, and in
> Appendix 5 for BES's recent PECASE awards.
>
> **[Goal]{.underline}:** Continue to develop and support PIs with high
> potential, who are later elected into the NAE, IOM, NAS and/or win top
> prizes (e.g., NSF's Waterman Award, NAE's Draper Prize, HHMI's \$1
> million Undergraduate Educator Award, Lemelson Invention Prize).
>
> **[Key Strategy #2:]{.underline}** *Agressively pursue and implement
> partnerships with other ENG divisions, directorates, and agencies,
> even if tolerance of high risk is required (e.g., solicitation risk).*
>
> Some examples of the results of this strategy include:

-   ***The Interagency Metabolic Engineering Solicitation.*** Conceived
    and led by BES, includes NSF, NIH, DOE, EPA, NASA, NIST, DOD, USDA
    (see Appendix 6).

-   ***The Multi-Agency Tissue Engineering Science (MATES) Working
    Group.*** Conceived and led by BES, includes NSF, NIH, NIST, DOD,
    FDA, DOE, NASA (see Appendix 6).

-   ***Quantitative Systems Biotechnology (QSB).*** Conceived and led by
    BES, includes 5 divisions in ENG, and BIO, CISE, and MPS (see
    Appendix 6).

-   ***The Biophotonics Partnership.*** Conceived and led by BES,
    includes NIH and DARPA.

-   ***Multi-Scale Modeling (MSM).*** Co-conceived and co-led by
    BES/NIBIB, involves 5 ENG divisions (all except EEC), CISE, MPS, and
    NIH, NASA, and DOE.

-   ***Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society (MUSES).***
    Co-conceived and co-led by BES/DMII, with SBE, MPS, CISE, GEO.

-   ***Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS).***
    Co-founded by BES, interagency solicitation involving NSF (CISE, ENG
    \[BES, ECS\], BIO, SBE) and NIH.

-   ***The Interface of the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences.*** An
    interagency forum co-led by BES/NIBIB, includes 10 agencies: NSF,
    NIH, NASA, DOE, NIST, DOD, EPA, USDA, FDA, NOAA. So far has resulted
    in a ten-agency workshop held May 10, 2004 and a national conference
    held November 9, 2004, attended by approximately 200 participants
    from across the country.

-   ***The CLEANER--CUAHSI Partnership.*** A merger of ENG's CL*EAN*ER
    and GEO's CUAHSI efforts that is currently under way.

-   ***The Medical Technology Innovation Task Force.*** Established by
    DHHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, with NSF participation led by BES.
    Resulted in a DHHS-NSF MOU co-signed by Dr. Arden Bement, Jr. and
    Secretary Tommy Thompson on January 13, 2005.

-   ***Image-Guided Interventions (IGI) Interagency Working Group.***
    Co-founded by BES/NIBIB, includes NIH, NASA, FDA, and DOD.

> In the statement above on this strategy, "solicitation risk" refers to
> the risk incurred by doing something new, never done before.
> Typically, numerous financial, bureaucratic, and organizational
> obstacles and hazards are encountered which must be overcome, with no
> guarantee that the high-potential new venture will be successful (high
> risk, potential high return).
>
> **[Goal]{.underline}:** Successfully implement new innovative
> partnerships with high-return potential. (e.g., the CL*EAN*ER-CUAHSI
> Partnership).
>
> [**Key Strategy #3**:]{.underline} *Dynamically interact, through
> extensive outreach, with universities, industry, foundations,
> non-profits, other agencies, and professional societies and topical
> meetings.*
>
> Some recent examples of the results of this strategy include:

-   For CL*EAN*ER, ***a series of 6 workshops was held on campuses
    across the country*** (Stanford, University of Minnesota --Twin
    Cities, Duke (2), University of Iowa, RPI). In addition, a
    CL*EAN*ER-related ***national symposium***, Frontiers of Advanced
    Methods for the Environment (FAME), was held at the University of
    Minnesota-Twin Cities, and an ***international workshop*** with
    Italy was held in Washington, DC.

-   An example of ***industry involvement*** is a workshop held by BES
    at NSF on "Future Directions of Biochemical Engineering," which
    included participants from leading biotech companies (Amgen, Biogen,
    Genencor, Chiron, Genetics Institute) as well as small business
    involvement.

-   For ***interaction*** ***with other agencies***, an example is the
    interagency meeting that BES co-organized with NIBIB on "The
    Interface of the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences," held May 10,
    2004, and attended by representatives of 10 federal agencies (NIH,
    NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA, DOD, EPA, NIST, FDA, NOAA). This was followed
    by a national symposium held on November 9, 2004 in Bethesda,
    attended by approximately 170 people from across the country.
    Another example is the Interagency Committee on Disabilities
    Research (ICDR), for which NSF is represented by BES.

-   BES program officers are active in numerous ***professional
    societies***, in some cases serving as officers or journal editors.
    Because BES covers three engineering disciplines (Biochemical,
    Biomedical, and Environmental), an usually large number of
    professional societies and topical meeting are involved, including,
    but not limited to, AIChE, AIMBE, AEESP, WEF, IEEE, ASCE, BMES,
    ASEE, ACS, SWE, and WEPAN.

> **[Goal:]{.underline}** Strengthen outreach, with high-return
> (intellectual, financial, diversity).
>
> **[Key Strategy #4:]{.underline}** *Create and implement "Big Ideas."*
>
> Examples include:

-   **Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for
    Environmental Research (CL*EAN*ER) -** The strategic intent of
    CL*EAN*ER is to fundamentally transform and radically advance the
    scientific and engineering knowledge base for addressing the
    challenges of large-scale human-dominated complex environmental
    systems. CL*EAN*ER will be a distributed collaborative network,
    comprised of a series of interacting field sites, an integrating
    cyberinfrastructure, and an enabling management infrastructure.
    CL*EAN*ER will support data collection from advanced sensor array
    systems, data aggregation, analytical tools for visualization and
    exploratory data mining, and predictive multi-scale modeling of
    dynamic environmental management strategies. The target date to
    begin the construction phase of CL*EAN*ER is 2010, at an estimated
    cost of \$200 million (MREFC funds). O&M is estimated to be \$20
    million/yr starting in 2013, with the same estimate for research
    dollars. GEO and ENG have agreed to work together to form the
    CL*EAN*ER-CUASHI Partnership. CUAHSI denotes "Consortium of
    Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc." A core
    of CUAHSI is planned to be a network of Hydrologic Observatories
    (HOs). Through the CL*EAN*ER-CUAHSI Partnership, the CL*EAN*ER and
    HO networks will be merged into a single entity with a unified
    purpose: ensuring the scientific and engineering knowledge-base
    needed for a safe and sufficient water supply for the Nation. For a
    description of the CL*EAN*ER implementation plan, see Appendix 7.

> **Goal:** Implement CL*EAN*ER through the CL*EAN*ER-CUAHSI Partnership
> of ENG and GEO, include other agencies.

-   **Quantitative Systems Biotechnolology (QSB)** -- ENG has
    established a leadership position across NSF with the solicitation
    on Quantitative Systems Biotechnology (QSB). ENG led the creation of
    this solicitation through conception and a workshop, and financed
    the first solicitation. ENG then recruited other NSF directorates to
    participate both intellectually and financially in subsequent
    solicitations. The current QSB solicitation involves four NSF
    directorates, led by ENG. The other three directorates are BIO, MPS,
    and CISE. ENG also is leading the currently ongoing worldwide WTEC
    study on Systems Biology, and recruited the participation of 6
    additional agencies. NIH is one of these, and two NIH Institutes are
    involved, NIBIB and NCI. Due to the early stage of intellectual
    development of QSB, currently the emphasis is on simple organisms,
    such as bacteria and yeasts. The intent is to extend the scope of
    QSB to more complex organisms, eventually including humans. Impact
    will result on health, wealth, and the environment.

> **Goal:** Extend QSB to higher organisms, include other agencies.

-   **BP /IGI -** The objective of the biophotonics (BP) focus is to
    exploit the power of photonics to advance bioengineering. Developing
    noninvasive, molecularly specific sensing, imaging, and monitoring
    systems with high optical sensitivity and resolution would be an
    enormous accomplishment, with powerful applications to both biology
    and medicine. Low cost diagnostics will require novel integration of
    photonics, molecular biology and material science. Complex
    biosensors capable of detecting and discriminating among large
    classes of biomolecules are important not only to biology and
    medicine but also to environmental sensing. These advances will
    require multidisciplinary integration of optical technologies with
    molecular biology in novel engineered systems. BES led a new
    initiative on biophotonics in FY 2000 in partnership with DARPA and
    NIH's National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and the National
    Cancer Institute (NCI), and recently NIH's NIBIB has joined the
    partnership. BES is a strong partner with NIH and NASA in the
    umbrella area of Image-Guided Interventions (IGI), which includes
    biophotonics. BES also leads NSF in the related ongoing
    congressionally-mandated forum on "The Interface between the Life
    Sciences and Physical Sciences," for which an interagency conference
    was held on May 10, 2004, and a national conference on November 9,
    2004.

> **Goal:** Grow BP / IGI partnership with other agencies.

-   **Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society (MUSES)** - ENG
    and NIST funded a WTEC worldwide study on Environmentally Benign
    Manufacturing (EBM). ENG (particularly BES and DMII) then built on
    the results of this study to take a leadership role in launching
    Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society (MUSES) as a topic
    in the Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE) annual competition. ENG
    currently leads very active MUSES participation by multiple
    directorates, including SBE and CISE. This entire thrust builds on
    both the WTEC EBM study and also Environmental Grand Challenge #8,
    as delineated in the recent National Academies Environmental Grand
    Challenges report commissioned by NSF.

> **Goal:** As the Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE) Priority phases
> out, have ENG continue to lead MUSES as an inderdirectorate,
> indisciplinary, cutting-edge activity.

-   **Multi-scale Modeling -** BES has the lead for NSF in a new
    multi-agency solicitation on multi-scale modeling. NIH is heavily
    involved, with NIBIB as the lead for NIH. Within ENG, five divisions
    (all except EEC) are participating, and within NSF, CISE and MPS are
    also committed to invest. The first solicitation, involving 4
    agencies (NSF, NIH, NASA, and DOE) has been posted, with NSF as the
    host agency, proposals have been received and readied for panel
    review, and award of the first grants is planned for FY 2005.

> **Goal:** Establish and build multi-scale modeling as a new
> interagency activity at the frontier of science, engineering,
> computing, and mathematics.

-   **Tissue Engineering** -- The MATES Working Group, in collaboration
    with the OSTP, is currently examining the possibility of launching a
    major effort on Tissue Engineering/ Regenerative Medicine. A figure
    as large as \$500 million per year for this effort has been
    discussed. BES leads the MATES Working Group and has invested early
    and continuing support in this field over the last 15 years. BES led
    a WTEC study funded by NSF and other federal agencies on Tissue
    Engineering (TE), which Larry McIntire chaired, and which was
    published as a hardcover book by Academic Press in 2002. The MATES
    Working Group has established a government web site
    ([http://tissueengineering.gov](http://tissueengineering.gov/)) on
    TE, which includes an electronic version of the WTEC study. A
    potentially important area of TE is the newly emerging field of
    Functional Tissue Engineering which focuses on the design of
    engineered tissues that are biomechanically as well as biochemically
    functional.

> **Goal:** Establish a major, well-funded interagency activity on
> Tissue Engineering/ Regenerative Medicine.
>
> **[Key Strategy #5:]{.underline}** *Enhance diversity.*
>
> Examples include:

-   [PECASE Awardees]{.underline}: BES has had the good fortune to have
    two PECASE awardees in each of the last several years, and all of
    them except one are from under-represented groups (see Appendix 5).

-   [Program Officer Hires]{.underline}: During the past year, BES hired
    four Program Officers and converted another from temporary to
    permanent. Of these five hiring actions for BES Program Officers,
    three were for women (60%)

-   [Workshops for Faculty and Students from Under-represented
    Groups]{.underline}: BES is co-organizing and co-funding a workshop
    for faculty from under-represented groups with CMS, and also
    participated in a similar workshop organized by CTS. BES supports
    "Girls Researching Our World (GROW)" at Kansas State University,
    which organizes workshops to introduce girls in grades 6-8 to
    biomedical research instrumentation, and, in Texas, the workshop
    "Adelente! Women in Math, Science, and Engineering," with an
    emphasis on Hispanic women. Other examples are available.

-   [Graduate Research Supplements for Students from Under-represented
    Groups]{.underline}: BES and ECS are launching a graduate research
    supplement Dear Colleague Letter for students from under-represented
    groups.

-   [Diverse Panelists]{.underline}: The BES Division Director serves as
    chair of the cross-directorate IGERT Coordinating Committee (ICC),
    and established an ICC Diversity Subcommittee that audits and
    enforces diversity of panelists for IGERT panels. Additionally,
    panelist diversity for BES's own panels is emphasized, and it has
    been reported that a BES panelist from an under-represented group
    visited with the Office of the Director (OD) of NSF and commented on
    the high degree of diversity of BES panelists.

-   [ENG Diversity Committee]{.underline}: The BES Division Director is
    an active member of the ENG Diversity Committee chaired by Garie
    Fordyce.

-   [ENG AdCom Nomination]{.underline}: BES nominated and helped to
    recruit an Hispanic woman who serves on ENG AdCom.

-   [COV Leadership]{.underline}: The chair of BES's last COV (2002) was
    African-American, and the Vice Chair of BES's upcoming COV is a
    woman.

-   [Outreach]{.underline}: BES Program Directors participate in
    outreach activities involving under-represented groups, such as the
    Society of Woman Engineers (SWE) and various committees of the
    Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) of IEEE.

-   [Disabilities]{.underline}: BES has an entire program on
    disabilities, "Research to Aid Persons with Disabilities (RAPD),"
    and a BES Program Director represents NSF on the Interagency
    Committee on Disabilities Research (ICDR)

-   [Workshop Chairs]{.underline}: The BES Division Director personally
    recruited a woman to serve as an "extramural" co-chair for an
    important interagency conference on "Research at the Interface of
    the Life and Physical Sciences."

> **[Goal]{.underline}:** More diverse grantees, students, panelists,
> and program officers.
>
> **[Key Strategy #6]{.underline}**. *Allow Program Officers
> opportunities to innovate and lead; provide all staff with
> opportunities to develop and grow.*
>
> Examples:

-   [Opportunities for Program Officers]{.underline}: BES Program
    Officers conceived and implemented MATES, MEWG, QSB, the
    Biophotonics Partnership, the interagency Multi-scale Modeling
    solicitation, CLEANER, and other collaborations.

-   [BES Support Staff]{.underline}: BES support staff are taking
    advantage of numerous opportunities (e.g., "After Hours Program"),
    have developed, been promoted, and have lines of advancement open to
    them.

> **[Goals]{.underline}:**

-   Be open to Program Officers' ideas and initiatives

-   Further develop opportunities and lines of advancement for support
    staff

> **[Key Strategy #7]{.underline}.** *Strive to balance support of
> cutting-edge [unsolicited]{.underline}* *and [solicited]{.underline}
> ideas*.
>
> [Status]{.underline}: Unsolicited awards at the division level are
> shrinking, while mandatory total divisional allocations for
> solicitations at the NSF level have been growing.
>
> **[Goal]{.underline}:** Reinforce unsolicited.
>
> **SWOT Analysis of BES**

[BES Strengths]{.underline}:

-   Top-notch staff

-   "Hot" areas (e.g., bioengineering, environmental engineering)

-   Numerous inter-divisional, inter-directorate, and interagency
    activities

-   Has a "Big Idea" on the official NSF MREFC "Horizon List."

-   Programs have strong and growing societal relevance and interest

[BES Weaknesses]{.underline}:

-   Under-financed

-   Too many proposals (e.g., for FY 2005, BES received the most CAREER
    proposals \[182\] of any division at NSF, yet BES is one of the
    smallest divisions at NSF, with an annual budget that is less than
    \$50 million)

-   Communities served are too big for the resources available

-   Suffering from "top down" initiatives that are diminishing core

-   Limited travel budget

[Opportunities]{.underline}:

-   Emergence of biology in engineering, pervasive throughout all
    engineering, not just engineering specialties such as BME

-   Importance of environmental sustainability

-   Alternative energy sources (e.g., bioenergy)

-   Interagency Systems Biology, Tissue Engineering, Image-Guided
    Interventions, Environmental Systems Analysis with Remote Sensing
    and CI

[Threats]{.underline}:

-   Low success rate

-   Almost no money left for unsolicited awards

-   Reduced budget, potential recision

-   Loss of reputation due to weak budget

-   Unknown potential management and organizational change

> **External Environment Impacting BES**

-   [Enrollments]{.underline}: While undergrad Engineering overall has
    been flat for the past decade, bioengineering has almost tripled.
    Not only are there many more students, there are also many more
    untenured Assistant Professors, all driven to write proposals to get
    grants needed for their tenure cases.

-   [Whitaker Foundation phasing out, NIBIB phasing in]{.underline}:
    Over the past decades, the Whitaker Foundation has invested hundreds
    of millions of dollars, multiplying several fold the number of BME
    departments across the country, and all the grant-writing that comes
    with that. But now the Whitaker Foundation is spending out all their
    capital, and taking no new grant applications. Within a few years,
    the Foundation will be gone. What will handle the vacuum thereby
    created? NIBIB is newly created, but already its funding success
    rate has fallen very low due to large numbers of proposals.

-   [AIChE starting up official "Society for Biological Engineering"
    (SBE)]{.underline}. AIChE has acknowledged the explosive impact of
    biology on chemical engineering, and is responding by creating the
    SBE as a subsidiary.

-   [Aging population]{.underline}. The demographics of the U.S.
    population are changing dramatically. There are more and more senior
    citizens, who are living longer. Special needs of these senior
    citizens are increasing. It is these needs that are among those
    within the scope of BES's RAPD program.

-   [High interest in cluster areas by women]{.underline}: The
    percentage of women students enrolled in bioengineering and
    environmental engineering is high, relative to most other areas of
    engineering.

-   [What Congress will do to our budget]{.underline}: Congress has
    decreased our budget for the first time in years. Will this become a
    trend?

**Priorities for BES**

[For All BES]{.underline}:

-   [CAREER]{.underline}: BES program officers hold CAREER awards in
    high priority. This is evident, for example, from data that is just
    now emerging for FY 2005 CAREER awards---early indications are that
    BES may make the most FY 2005 CAREER awards of any division in ENG,
    even though BES is by far the smallest division in ENG.

-   [Unsolicited Awards]{.underline}: As much as BES Program Officers
    hold CAREER awards in high priority, they also want unsolicited
    awards to have high priority. Consequently, numerous BES CAREER
    proposals that are highly recommended by BES panels must be
    declined, due to constrained funds and the balancing act of CAREER
    awards vs. unsolicited awards.

[For the BEB Cluster]{.underline}:

The BEB Cluster would like to see QSB, Metabolic Engineering, and Small
Group

awards all be high priority. However, funding constraints have made this
impossible, so

the hard decision has been made to defer the QSB solicitation until FY
2006.

[For the BME/RAPD Cluster]{.underline}:

The BME/RAPD Cluster would like to see biophotonics, senior design
projects, and

multiscale modeling awards all be priority. The cluster is scrambling to
do the best that it

can on this, while also making awards for CAREER and unsolicited
proposals.

[For the EET Cluster]{.underline}:

Unsolicited, CAREER, and CLEANER all are priority, and there also is a
desire to fund

some high-potential SGERS.

**New Money Needs (\$millions): Prioritized**

[2007]{.underline} [2008]{.underline} [2009]{.underline}
[2010]{.underline} [2011]{.underline} [2012]{.underline}
[2013]{.underline} [2014]{.underline} [2015]{.underline}

Reinforce CAREER 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Reinforce unsolicited 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15

CLEANER 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 40

HO Testbeds 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

QSB 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

MSM 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

TE/RM 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

IGI 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

MUSES 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

SGER 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

\_\_\_ \_\_\_ \_\_ \_\_ \_\_ \_\_ \_\_\_ \_\_\_ \_\_

Total 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 57 95

Note: Numbers calculated assuming a success rate of 25% (BES CAREER
success rate = 12% for FY 2005 and BES overall success rate = 13% for FY
2004).

**Appendices**

1.  **BES Consolidated Financial Spreadsheet, and ENG Division
    Spreadsheets**

> ![](media/image1.wmf)

2.  **BES Active Awards Sorted into Topics, with Overview (ASTG
    Exercise)**

> ![](media/image2.wmf)

![](media/image3.wmf)

3.  **Key BES Proposal and Award Data**

> ![](media/image4.wmf)

4.  **BES CAREER Awards**

> ![](media/image5.wmf)

5.  **BES PECASE Awards**

> ![](media/image6.wmf)
>
> **6. Data on QSB, ME, and TE/MATES**
>
> ![](media/image7.wmf)

7.  **CL*EAN*ER**

> ![](media/image8.wmf)