Strategic Plan – Society for Biomaterials and Artificial Organs India

Strategic Plan (2022-24)

Mission

At SBAOI, we will remain committed to discussing many unanswered issues at the challenging interface of Engineering, Biology, Medicine and Materials Science. The outcome of the professional activities of SBAOI will intensify the development of the next-generation biomaterials and biomedical implants, which will enhance healthcare quality in India and many developing nations around the world.

Vision

To make SBAOI a more useful platform to young researchers and biomaterials professionals.
To enhance the global outreach of SBAOI and particularly to nurture biomaterials activities in South Asian countries.
To promote diversity, equity and inclusiveness in SBAOI activities.
To establish stronger linkages with stakeholders, industry professionals, regulatory consultants and clinicians.
To encourage members to pursue boundaryless research on next-generation biomaterials and implants via interdisciplinary collaboration among academia, clinicians, and industries.
To make India self-reliant in implant manufacturing by forming consortium/consortia.

Core Values

Accountability

Our volunteer leaders take their roles seriously and operate in open, responsible, and ethical ways.

Excellence

Appreciate and reward the scientific, industrial, and educational achievements of the members.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness

At SBAOI, we shall remain committed to following the code of scientific ethics, maintain integrity in research and publications, uphold the cause of science and the dignity of the respective institutes and the country, endeavor to be objective in our judgment, and strive for the enrichment of human values and thoughts. We shall continue to commit ourselves to respect and appreciate each other in SBAOI; independent of age, gender, race and ethnicity, religion/belief, disability, educational background/ training/ sector experience, social/economic status, and regional/ national origin, or even personality. This would inculcate a safe, positive, and nurturing environment, allowing us both to embrace and celebrate the rich dimensions of diversity in SBAOI.

Service

We, at SBAOI, commit to providing members with outstanding services.

Education

We value learning in the creation and dissemination of knowledge, through organizing
conferences, outreach activities and professional interactions.

Collaboration

SBAOI propagates interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers from chemical,
engineering, biological, medical sciences and materials science, to advance the frontiers of biomaterials
science, implants, and other biomedical devices.

Consultative Mechanisms

We welcome new ideas and observations on the existing practices, from
the members. A number of functional committees would help SBAOI to function in a better and more
transparent manner. It is proposed to amend to the existing ‘Executive Committee’ to ‘Executive Council’,
with the following guidelines.

President, SBAOI will chair the Executive council
The Executive Council will comprise the Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, conveners of all the committees and the existing members of the SBAOI executive committee
The Executive Council will comprise the members of the President’s Advisory committee.
The Executive Council will comprise the Presidents of each local chapter of SBAOI
The President, local chapter President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary and conveners will have a fixed tenure for three years
There will be three years of the gap period for the council members before two successive terms so that there will be no continuous term for the same member.
The president of SBAOI or local chapter President can not be have more than one term.

Goals and Strategic Initiatives

1. Expand SBAOI membership base and visibility across multiple scientific disciplines in various National labs, healthcare sectors, and industries across India

Program and Membership committee

SBAOI is committed to increasing the number of professional members and their engagement within the
Society to include diversity and inclusiveness in SBAOI activities. SBAOI has current member strength
of 946. The role of the Programme and Membership committee is to pursue a membership drive across
academia, national labs, healthcare sectors, and industries in India.
Members:
T. M. Sridhar (Convener), University of Madras, Chennai
S. Kanagaraj, IIT Guwahati
A. Siddharthan, Anna University, Chennai
Debrupa Lahiri, IIT Roorkee
S. Balakumar, University of Madras, Chennai
Bikramjit Basu (President), Ex-officio member
Action Points:
❖ A new suggestion was proposed to start e-newsletter that would highlight the activities of the Society.
A graphical presentation of highlights of the Society members’ research group should also be
published.
❖ A national and international membership drive should be initiated. The local/student chapters should
also promote the membership drive.
❖ Reaching out to all invited plenary note speakers from India and abroad, in the virtual conferences of
SBAOI held in 2020 and 2021.
❖ All the student awardees from the previous conferences should be given life membership. Students
and young researchers who have participated in the last two conferences can be approached to become
life members.
❖ By the end of the year 2024, SBAOI should have 1250 or more regular members.

2. Develop new programs to meet the needs of industrial and clinical translation

INDUSTRIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: The role of this committee is to develop strategies to meaningfully engage the MNC/MSME/start-ups in the area of new generation biomedical devices.

Prof. Basu defined the short-term goal of IAC as

(i) To establish new linkage with industry and strengthen existing ones (refer to Annexure)

(ii) To induct a more number of Indian Biomed/Med. Dev. MSMEs and Start-Ups to SBAOI

(iii) To invite Industry leaders for deliberations in the future SBAOI conferences.

Action Points:

The committee proposed to publish a common technology booklet covering existing commercialized technology and products from Indian academics/national labs available for licensing and the contact details of industry professionals (Key leaders, e.g. Vice-President).
A similar booklet is proposed for medical institutions/hospitals/clinics, together with the contact details of the active clinicians.
To formulate new “Industry Affiliate Membership” for SBAOI to encourage participation and deliberations from industries in future SBAOI meetings.

3. SBAOI will expand our culture of inclusion of international membership within underrepresented groups, and researchers from the USA, Europe, and South Asia

Global Outreach Committee

The role of this committee is to promote linkages with the biomaterial communities in the USA, Europe, and South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.) and strengthen existing ties with IUSBSE members.

Action points:

This Society should actively participate in the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE), European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), etc.
SBAOI’s representatives in IUSBSE executive board for 2022-24: ▪ Ashok Kumar, IIT Kanpur ▪ Neetu Singh, IIT Delhi
Dr. Lakshmi Nair will be Liaising with Society for Biomaterials, USA (SFB), and Dr. Ipsita Roy will be the interface with the UK Society of Biomaterials.
Representatives from the SBAOI-US chapter need to be actively involved as members of the global outreach committee with a clear mandate to increase the membership of the Indian origin researchers based in the USA.
This committee can organize ‘meet and greet’ session at various international conferences.

4. SBAOI is committed to enhancing content, products, and educational programs to meet the needs of members better

President’s Council of Students Advisors (PCSA)

The role of PSCA will be to advise the committees on how SBAOI can offer a platform to advance the professional career of young researchers. This committee will consist of Ph.D. students/junior scientists from different academia and national labs.

Action points:

Promote the linkages among the Indian students through HODs or Registrar.
To promote SBAOI among the students of the neighboring countries.
To provide collective and constructive inputs to the website committee and to follow up on the changes in a regular manner.
To invite speakers, preferably industrialists and clinicians, to share their thoughts on biomaterial applications in the current Indian healthcare market to analyze the drawbacks of the existing materials/techniques in use.
Along with webinars, all the webinars should be live streamed.
To finalize the society-related information to be posted on the social media sites (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook) by PCSA members after duly approved by President’s advisory committee.
Society related activities information can also be regularly updated on social media, which will be maintained by the responsible PCSA members.

5. SBAOI is committed to recognizing the contribution made by young researchers and biomaterials scientists:

SBAOI will continue to recognize members and young researchers by several current status awards

“Fellow Biomaterials and Artificial Organs” FBAO

The honorary status of “Fellow, Biomaterials and Artificial Organs” (FBAO) was established in February 2010 in line with that of FBSE (IUS-BSE) to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the SBAOI. Twenty-seven members have been conferred so far with FBAO for their accomplishments. They are members of the SBAOI Academy of Fellows.

MAHE “Young Scientist Award”

The MAHE “Young Scientist Award” is constituted for the best paper presented by a scientist/academic faculty during the national conferences of SBAOI. There is an age limit of 40 years for this award. (Eligibility: independent researchers like academic faculty members and scientists in national labs.)

Bajpai-Saha “Student Award”

The Bajpai-Saha “Student Award” is for the best student paper presented during the national conferences of the Society. The students should be registered for any of the regular courses i.e. PhD, MSc, MS, M.Tech, B.Tech, etc. Research Associates and Post-Doctoral Fellows cannot apply for the student award.

Institution of new Awards:

Annual General Body meeting held in December 2021, the institution of the several new awards was discussed and approved. The institution of any new named award must corroborate with the SBAOIapproved guidelines and the same must be approved in the GB meeting.

SBAOI distinguished Biomaterials scientist award recognizes the outstanding global contributions made by a biomaterials scientist, who has made significant contributions to the area of Biomaterials Science, Bioengineering and Materials engineering for human healthcare. Nominations are invited from the candidates who have made internationally-recognized contributions while working in academia, industry, or government-funded national laboratory based in India. The award winner will present an award lecture at the SBAOI annual conference. The award consists of a cash award (to be decided), a citation certificate, and complimentary registration at SBAOI annual meeting.

A nominee must be older than 40 years and should be an active scientist/engineering scientist at the time of award presentation, and is required to be a member of the SBAOI for at least 10 preceding years. Nominations are to be recommended by a sponsor, who should be the past presidents of SBAOI. The deadline for nominations is July 1, 2022 in the year preceding the next SBAOI conference. Nominations along with a written statement of the nominee’s qualifications, CV, five best papers (PDF file), and twopage research contributions, to be sent to the President, SBAOI (preferably by email). The nominations will be evaluated by five fellows, to be chaired by the current SBAOI Academy of Fellows.

1. SBAOI distinguished Biomaterials scientist award

2. Young Innovator Award in memory of Prof. Rinti Banerjee

Regarding the Young Innovator award, Prof Basu informed that he is in contact with Dr. Bagavathi Prasad, husband of Late Rinti Banerjee, and he has agreed to sponsor the award in memory of Prof. Rinti Banerjee. He will also be invited to the award ceremony. The Award will be known as the “Rinti Banerjee Young Innovator Award”. There will be an age limit of 45 for applying. This was unanimously approved by the GB. President, SBAOI will request Dr. Prasad for an endowment for sustaining this award in future.
SBAOI needs to have an MOU with the donor or sponsor of the society award (American Ceramic Society model may be followed). The mechanism of the formation and operation of the endowment grant, where many donors give money, will be the responsibility of the ‘Endowment sub-committee’ under the existing Finance Committee, as mentioned below. This committee can be extended, depending on the needs and new donor or his/her representative can be added in future. The same can be reported to the President’s Advisory Committee.
The detailed planning of such initiative is to be chalked out by the committee members. The role of this committee is to raise funds so that all the newly instituted awards can be sustained. Note that the finance committee is also mandated to regularly assess the financial status of the SBAOI and to ensure that the financial documents from the past conferences are submitted to SBAOI, after due audit process.
Endowment grant could be maintained as a separate FD and the interest earned could be used for disbursing the award (depending upon the capital amount). The committee can consider, for example, if someone donates INR X, then what will be the tax amount whether it will be going to the fixed deposit so that from the interest the money will be used for awards. How much will be the award money? That all depends on how much funds we have and what would be the endowment and all those things.
The guidelines in relation to the functioning of the Endowment sub-committee need to be approved in the GB Meeting.

3. The other suggested awards for the students were approved by General Body. The awards will be as follows:

Best Undergraduate Project Award
Best Master’s Thesis Award
Best PhD thesis Award
The eligibility will be decided by screening all nominations and abstract at the zonal level. This award will be given based on merit and outstanding research activities. The following Awards committee has been constituted. This committee can be extended, depending on the needs, new members can be added and the same can be reported to the President’s Advisory Committee.
Action points:
❖ The role of the above Awards committee would be to formalize the eligibility criteria, award nomination form, and monetary recognition.
❖ All the nomination/application formats for various awards must be approved by the Executive Council.
❖ The circular of the different awards needs to be circulated by June 30, 2022.

6. SBAOI is committed to introducing new initiatives

Action Points:

To start online career guidance workshop for undergraduate, graduate students and young faculty, all separately, at least two times a year.
To continue the publication of the SBAOI newsletter as a quarterly issue. SBAOI members appreciated the contents and effort of the first newsletter; however, they suggested that future newsletters should: i) highlight the membership benefits; ii) an online payment gateway to enable enrollment in a few minutes. Therefore, a one-page flyer highlighting the membership benefits would be released along with online payment gateway for quick enrollment.
In the last general body meetings held in December 2021, it was approved unanimously to have a new associate member category valid for three years to bonafide UG/PG/non-stipendiary Research Scholars for INR 2000/-. On completion of the period, they can be upgraded to Life Member by paying the balance amount at that time.
All the new members from Indian sub-continent and South Asian countries would be treated, similar to Indian members, w.r.t. membership fee and other opportunities.
The current membership fee of Organizational membersfrom institutions and Industries can be revised to INR 20,000/-. Industry members will receive a concession in the registration fee for attending the national meeting of SBAOI.
It is recommended to develop a sustainable ecosystem of researchers-industry-clinicians-regulatory agency (CDSCO/DCGI) for indigenous product development.
The regulatory professionals should be invited to SBAOI/STERMI led national conferences.
Some student-centric programs like “meet-the-clinician” and “meet-the-industry” should be arranged in the Society’s annual meeting. For future conferences, A proposal template should be used by conference organizers for discussion and approval in general body meetings.
It is recommended that STERMI and SBAOI-Executive Committee would take the lead in organizing the national conference every alternate year.
To enhance the visibility of the SBAOI journal as well as to organize outreach programs or webinars for the benefit of the members and the Education and Publication committee should take leading role on this.

This committee will also interface with the editorial board of the SBAOI journal, TIBAO, including any ethical issues related to publications therein. This committee is expected to help the organisers of the SBAOI meetings in publishing special issues in flagship journals on a theme topic, to present the progress made by the Biomaterials Scientists in India.

To announce and to invite SBAOI members to participate in student mentor program and faculty mentor program in the future newsletters. Both the following programs are to be formed and guided by the Education and Publication committee.

SBAOI Student Mentor Program

❖ A senior year Bachelor’s student or a Master’s student seeking technical expertise in their field of study, professional development skills, career advice, encouragement, or support, can consider applying for the program.
❖ An established material/biomaterials scientist seeking to contribute back in the field can consider applying to be a mentor.

SBAOI Faculty Mentor Program

❖ A faculty member seeking to gain pedagogical expertise in their field of research, professional development skills, career advice, can consider applying for the program.
❖ An established key opinion leader (senior faculty member/clinician) seeking to contribute back and encourage others in the field can consider applying to be a mentor.