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Summaries of Meetings
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After calling the meeting to order, Dr. Lenfant described legislation passed by the previous Congress that established a group of educational loan repayment programs. The NIH views these as very worthwhile programs and has established a committee to develop implementation guidelines. Four programs are provided for in the legislation:
Dr. Lenfant also reviewed the President's FY 2002 budget for the NHLBI, which provides the Institute $2,567.4 billion (an increase of $268.3 million or 11.7% increase over the FY 2001 budget).
Dr. Barbara Alving, Director of the Division of Blood Diseases and Resources, gave an overview of the results of the April 2001 meeting of the Board of Extramural Affairs (BEA), a working group of the NHLBAC. The BEA provides the Institute with a mechanism for receiving advice from leaders of scientific communities and assists the Institute in communicating new developments and plans to its investigators. The proposed FY 2002/2003 initiatives evaluated by the BEA were developed with community participation through workshops, working group meetings, and other interactions between Institute staff and investigators. Following Dr. Alving's presentation, the Council reviewed, discussed, and approved a total of 27 initiatives.
During the closed portion of the meeting, the Council concurred on the award of 332 grants for a total cost of $130,090,147.
The next meeting of the Council is scheduled for 8:30 A.M. on September 6, 2001. It is open to the public and will be in NIH Building 31C, Conference Room 10.
The FYI from the NHLBI staff thanks Ms. Paula Polite, member of the NHLBAC and President of the Sarcoidosis Research Institute, for her efforts in preparing this summary. Full minutes of Council meetings are available.The NHLBI will sponsor its annual meeting with representatives of various public interest organizations on February 6, 2002. As in previous years, the meeting date immediately precedes the winter meeting of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council to facilitate interactions between organization representatives and Council members. However, this year's meeting will have a slightly different format - instead of having several formal presentations interspersed with breakout sessions, it will consist primarily of workshops and seminars on topics identified by representatives who attended last year's meeting. "Save the Date" letters announcing the event have been mailed to organization leaders; we hope each of your groups will be represented.