This award is being made to organize a special workshop to discuss successful approaches for development of novel instrumentation for biological research and to realize the full potential of such instrumentation through broad dissemination and outreach. The workshop agenda will identify successful approaches for (1) Interdisciplinary collaborations of biologists and instrument developers, (2) Inclusion of students and postdoctoral researchers in biological instrumentation development, (3) Opportunities for U.S. interagency collaboration to promote synergistic instrument development efforts (4) Entrepreneurial activities that allow the first proof-of-concept prototype to be transformed into commercial instrumentation (5) Best practices for education and outreach, and (6) Feedback from current Instrument Development for Biological Research (IDBR) program principal investigators (PIs) on the effectiveness of the IDBR program. The workshop will bring together: 1) active researchers representing diverse branches of biological sciences; 2) physicists and engineers who are experts in relevant instrument development technologies; 3) National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health program managers; 4) successful entrepreneurs; 5) university personnel responsible for graduate training and for technology transfer and commercialization; and 6) graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
The meeting organizers and invited speakers are diverse in terms of career stage, gender, type of institution, and geographical region. The PIs will recruit and actively encourage participation of early-career investigators, students, and members of underrepresented groups in the fields of engineering and biology. To do so, the PIs will use email, word of mouth, society newsletters, announcements, and advertising. The PIs will communicate/disseminate results of the workshop by compiling in a detailed report the highlights of the presentations and discussions as well as meeting outcomes and future directions and recommendations. The report will be submitted to NSF and a modified version will be submitted for publication in a biotechnology journal(e.g. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Biotechniques, etc.). The goals of the workshop are aligned with goals of the Instrument Development for Biological research (IDBR) program, which seeks to develop and disseminate instrumentation that is potentially transformative for biological research.
The objective of this project was to organize a workshop attended by the principal investigators of the Instrumentation Development for Biological Research (IDBR) program of the NSF BIO Directorate. The goal of the workshop was to discuss strategies that enable successful development and dissemination of instrumentation intended to transform biological research. The conference themes include: Strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations among biologists and instrument developers. Best practices in enabling access to IDBR-funded instruments to broad community Best approaches for licensing and commercialization of instruments Innovative strategies for education and outreach in the context of Instrument Development The workshop was organized over a period of two days on May 1 and 2, 2014 in the greater DC metro region. The conference was attended by the current principal investigators of the IDBR funded program which include biologists, physicists and engineers spanning different disciplines across many different universities in the US, program managers from NSF, NIH, university personnel responsible for licensing and commercialization and representatives from the government and industry. Limited number of students/postdoctoral researchers and other scientist who are directly involved in IDBR funded instrumentation projects also participated in this workshop. Intellectual Merit: The proposed workshop assisted participants in identifying and addressing the hindrances to the successful development and dissemination of novel and commercially viable instrumentation for biological research. The proposed workshop helped: 1) promote interactions and discussions through oral presentation, table discussions and panel discussions; 2) elucidated the institutional and interpersonal challenges by assembling a diverse group of students, industry, and academic scientists from a variety of disciplines; 3) facilitated the development of ideas and recommendations for how to prepare and support students and faculty to engage in inter-/transdisciplinary research for novel instrumentation for biological research; and 4) promote discussion and implementation of strategies for broad dissemination measured in terms of broad access to instruments, and through successful licensing and commercialization of the technology. Broader Impacts: The meeting organizers and invited speakers were diverse in terms of career stage, gender, type of institution, and geographical region. Two (Valencia Joyner Koomson, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University and Eduardo Rosa-Molinar, Associate Professor, Integrative Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Puerto-Rico-Rio Piedras) of the three organizers are tenured faculty from underrepresented group in fields of engineering and science, and the latter (Eduardo Rosa-Molinar) is a tenured faculty member at an Hispanic serving institution. The participants at the workshop included early-career investigators, students, and also members of underrepresented groups in the fields of engineering and biology. This report serves as the PIs effort to communicate/disseminate results of this workshop, which includes the highlights of the presentations by speakers and summary of discussions as well as future directions and recommendations. There is also a plan to submit a brief commentary to a biotechnology journal (e.g. Nature Biotechnology, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Magazine, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Bio techniques, etc.).
