NIBIB-NSF Bioengineering and Bioinformatics Summer Institutes Program (BBSI)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified bioengineering and bioinformatics as essential interdisciplinary disciplines for physical and life sciences. The agencies will continue collaborating on an important effort to meet anticipated bioengineering and bioinformatics human resource needs, specifically by targeting the career "pipeline" at a critical juncture.

The purpose of this program is to provide undergraduate and early-stage graduate students majoring in the biological sciences, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics, and physical sciences with well-planned, interdisciplinary bioengineering or bioinformatics research and education experiences in active 'Summer Institutes', thereby increasing the number of individuals pursuing careers in bioengineering and bioinformatics at the graduate level and beyond.

For the purpose of the Program Solicitation, bioengineering and bioinformatics are considered in their broadest sense. We welcome innovative proposals from all areas related to bioengineering and bioinformatics. Traditionally, this would include, but is not limited to, the following areas: tissue engineering, biomaterials, drug delivery systems, implant sciences, biosensors, platform technology development, computational modeling, algorithm development, medical imaging, and image analysis. New areas that would benefit from the significant value added of applying the technologies and methods of bioengineering and bioinformatics include, but are not limited to, the dynamics of complex physical and/or chemical systems, biomimetic systems, systems that demonstrate emergent behavior, genomics, systems biology, biodiversity, and ecology. These are examples for illustrative purposes only and should not be interpreted as all-inclusive. Cyberinfrastructure is increasingly becoming useful as a tool to enhance teaching and research and to provide access to resources that would otherwise not be available at some institutions. We encourage, but do not require, the use of cyberinfrastructure in these programs, especially to continue the learning process during the academic year for students who have completed their first summer of research training and have been appointed to pursue a second summer of research training at the same Summer Institute.

Please see the report from the NSF Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure http://www.cise.nsf.gov/sci/reports/atkins.pdf for a discussion of how cyberinfrastructure promises to revolutionalize the kinds of problems that may be taken on as well as the manner in which they are pursued.