Minutes of the Excecutive Committee Meetings of SBAOI

Date and Time: June 11, 2020: 4:00 PM to 5:30PM

Venue: Online ZOOM Platform

The meeting was held on the online ZOOM platform on 11th June 2020 at 4 pm to discuss the following points.
1. WBC 2020
2. SBAOI – annual conference and GB for 20-21
3. Extension of the EC term by 3 months to March 2021
4. Any other point with the permission of the chair

The following members attended the meeting:
1. Dr. Chandra Prakash Sharma, Founder, SBAOI & STERMI
2. Prof. Veena Koul, President, SBAOI
3. Prof. Bikramjit Basu, Vice President, SBAOI
4. Prof. Bhuvanesh Gupta, President, STERMI
5. Dr. Balamurugan, Secretary, STERMI
6. Mr. Willi Paul, Jt. Sec, SBAOI
7. Prof. Vishwa P. Shrivastava, Nepal-invitee
8. Prof. Ashok Kumar, IIT Kanpur -invitee
9. Prof. S. Kanagaraj, IIT Guwahati-invitee
10. Dr. Neetu Singh, IIT Delhi – invitee
11. Dr. T.M. Sridhar, Secretary, SBAOI

Other members who were unable to attend
Dr. H.K. Varma, SCTIMST, Prof. R. Jayakumar, Amrita, Kochi
Prof. Dhirendra S. Katti, IIT Kanpur and Dr. Biman B Mandal, IIT Guwahati

1. The meeting started with Prof. Veena Koul welcoming the members to the meeting and briefed about the agenda and solicited the views of the members on holding our proposed Annual conference and GB meeting at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore in December 2020. All the members expressed their views which are summarized as follows,
I. Holding the conference and sessions online
II. Fear among the members to travel to the conference
III. The Host (Dr. Bala, Bharathiyar Univ) and their VC prefer to have a physical attendance
IV. Postponement of the conference to Feb-mar 2020 or clubbing it with the next year conference in case there is no improvement in the pandemic situation.
V. In case of online, how would students and young researchers interact -needs to be addressed.
Finally, it was decided to take a decision in August 2020 after reviewing the COVID pandemic situation at that time and this was accepted unanimously by the committee.

2. Prof. Basu briefed about the updates of the recent IUSBSE meeting on 04June 2020. It is going to be online conference with no physical attendance. Plenary talks would be online with the choice to interact with the speaker. Keynote would be recorded and telecast, where questions can be posted in the chat box. Reg. registration fee – for those who opt out, 75 % would be refunded and for others, it will be decided later. Prof. Basu has emphasized that the organizers should consider how the networking among young researchers can be facilitated in the virtual meeting format. We have supported the virtual meeting, which will be held in December only. China and Korea opposed the virtual meeting format. The fellowship and other awards would be presented online and sent to the awardees.

3. The bid for 2028 meeting will be discussed in a special meeting of the IUSBSE in September and virtual AGM will be held in June end. Dr. Sridhar will make preparations for the WBC 2028 presentation and take the inputs from all the members. USA is the other country that would be competing with us. It was suggested that Dr. Sridhar can share the slide presentations with senior members of SBAOI at least two weeks before the presentation before IUSBSE.

4. The members accepted the committee’s views to extend the term of the office bearers to March 2021 so that the financial year can come to an end. This decision would be approved by the GB.

5. The election of office bearers to the society to be taken up shortly by December 2020, which would be initiated by the President.

6. Dr. Ballamurugan, who has been appointed as Associate Editor, called for strengthening of the Journal and invited the participation by all the members. The delay in publishing the articles is due to the delay in receiving reviewer reports and that most authors submit the paper to the Journal only after it is rejected by international Journals. Prof. Ashok volunteered to be a reviewer and also contribute to the journal. The papers from 2019 conference can be published as a special issue. Reminders would be sent to the reviewers for getting the reports on time. Members discussed about the ways to make the Trends Journal more vibrant and have it indexed in Scopus and Medline. It was decided to select and award one best paper published each year.

7. Further, it was unanimously decided by the committee to adopt the following: For all nominations to the society, the contributions by the nominee to the society should be carefully considered, in terms of his/her service as a reviewer and publication of manuscripts for the Trends Journal. This is a common practice in most of the International societies.

8. It was also suggested that three awards to the first or lead author of the best papers published in the SBAOI journal, Trends will be discussed and approved in GB.

9. All the members, and the fellows in particular, will be requested to popularize the Journal and contribute to review articles along with their research profiles, as well as for regular reviewing process.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by the Dr. Sridhar.

Minutes Prepared by Dr. T.M. Sridhar
Approved by Prof. Veena Kaul

Date and Time: May 3, 2021: 4:30 PM to 6:00PM

Venue: Online Microoft Teams Platform

Minutes of the First Executive Committee Meeting held online (Microsoft Teams), May 3, 2021, 4:30 PM

Members Present: Dr. Bikramjit Basu, Dr. C.P. Sharma, Prof. Ashok Kumar, Prof. Shrivastava, Dr. Laxmi Nair, Dr. T. M. Sridhar, Dr. Kanagaraj, Dr. Jayakumar, Dr. Balamurugan, Dr. Jayasree, Dr. T S Sampathkumar, Dr. Neetu Singh, Dr. Kaladhar, Dr. A. Siddharthan, and Mr. Willi Paul
Members Absent: Dr. H.K. Varma and Dr. TV Anilkumar
Dr. Bikramjit Basu started the meeting requesting Dr. Kaladhar and Dr. Kanagaraj to self-introduce them, as they were new in the Executive committee. Prof. Bikramjit Basu then presented the present status and vision of the Society. He first thanked Prof. Sharma, founder of the society. He mentioned that the Society was started long ago with a particular vision of brining all who are working on biomaterials science under one umbrella.
A. President’s Vision:
1. Aligning with national policies: One of the objectives of the Society is to organize national conferences from time to time with the financial assistance mainly from the various government departments and private agencies. Previous conferences were attended by delegates from all over India, and from countries like USA, Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Malaysia, Australia, Nepal, South Korea, Taiwan etc. Dr. Bikramjit Basu suggested that when Society organizes national conferences, it’s a good idea that some of the sessions need to be aligned to the current national healthcare policies of the country. Some of them are Aatmanirbhar, Ayushman Bharat etc. that are promoting biomedical startups and incubators.
2. Expanding SBAOI activities in South Asia: Another suggestion was to promote Biomaterials in South Asia. SBAOI has already established very good relations with Nepal, particularly College of Biomedical Engineering, but also suggest in extending it to other neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Bangladesh, he noted some activities related to biomaterials in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka and Atomic Energy Commission in Dhaka. Dr. Basu recently contacted a faculty in University of Ceylon In Sri Lanka. Dr. Basu believes that SBAOI can take a lead to promote biomaterials activities and to inspire next generation researchers in South Asia in this field.
3. Linkage with other international societies: Dr. Basu also suggested that SBAOI should more actively participate in IUSBSE event/activities as well as establish strong linkages with European Society for Biomaterials and UK Society for Biomaterials. Dr. Basu is in contact with couple of biomaterials scientists in UK of Indian origin to represent SBAOI in ESB and UKSB which will be finalized soon. It was generally suggested that SBAOI members should attend conferences of IUSBSE recognized societies. These meetings may be widely advertised. Dr. Sharma indicated that some members are already attending different conferences but the strength should be increased so that SBAOI will get more visibility.
4. Introducing New Awards: Dr. Basu suggested introducing a SBAOI Distinguished Scientist Award as the second highest award in the Society. The award recognizes the outstanding global contributions made by a biomaterials scientist, who has made significant contributions to the area of Biomaterials science and bioengineering 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 INR10,000, citation certificate, and complimentary registration at SBAOI annual meeting. This was discussed in last AGM during SBAOI virtual conference in Coimbatore, but after due discussions in this EC meeting, the executive committee approved the institution of this award with the following guidelines.
(1) The individual’s contribution to the field of Biomaterials in terms of scholarly research publications/patents/technology commercialization, including translational research (bench to bedside). The candidate must have published at least 10 papers in reputed journals, like Biomaterials, Acta Biomaterialia, ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, Nature/Nature Materials/Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science/Science Advances/Science Translational Medicine, based on work entirely carried out in India (i.e. without international collaborations). (2) The individual’s contributions to promoting SBAOI activities, including organizing SBAOI annual meeting, invited/keynote lectures at major international conferences and technical events, and other professional events, which have enhanced the visibility of biomaterials in India. 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, but not currently on the executive council of the SBAOI and those who received FBAO. Nominations are to be recommended by a sponsor, who should be the past presidents of SBAOI. The deadline for nominations can be July1 in the year preceding the next SBAOI conference. Nominations (preferably by email), including a written statement of the nominee’s qualifications, CV and five best papers (PDF file) and two-page research contributions, may be send to the president, SBAOI. The nominations will be evaluated by five fellows, to be chaired by the current SBAOI Academy of Fellows. Dr. Sharma indicated that since it is approved by the last GB, the criteria can be decided by the committee. After a lengthy and serious deliberation by the members it was decided to keep these criteria as general and the specific guidelines for the evaluation of candidates will be prepared by the President and will be presented in the award committee. A general consensus was to keep the publications majorly in Biomaterials filed and also books may be considered. High impact journals in respective field and translation research may be considered. Another suggestion was to not to exclude any committee members from considering for the award. Age limit was decided as minimum of 40 with no upper age limit. Dr. Basu suggested instituting additional awards if we get support from industry. These awards can be instituted if it can be sustained. Prof. Basu is in contact with some industries, and this will be discussed in future meetings. 5. Constituting and restructuring various SBAOI committees: Prof. Basu suggested that SBAOI members should be involved in society activity and should be an integral part of the society. Dr. Sharma suggested that many of the committees can be formed by the President and be placed at the next EC meeting as a reporting item. President opines that the committee may be restructured every three years. Dr. Basu desires to receive an update every three months from the convener of the above committees and for arranging any online meeting, Dr. Sridhar will provide all the logistic support. a. C P Sharma award committee: It was decided to continue the existing pattern of any five past C P Sharma awardees and current President of SBAOI. Secretary will be coordinating the same. b. Global Outreach committee: The role of this committee is to promote linkages with the biomaterials community in South Asia as well as to strengthen existing ties with other international biomaterials societies. The committee is as follows, V. P. Srivastava, CBEA, Nepal (Convener)
Lakshmi Nair, University of Connecticut, USA
Ispita Roy, University of Sheffield, UK
Kaushik Chatterjee, IISc, Bangalore
Geetha Manivasagam, VIT, Vellore
c. Website Committee – It was suggested that 2-3 people from different institutions can be formulated as a Screening Committee. The website can be maintained at SCTIMST.
Willi Paul (Convener)
T. M. Sridhar
Neetu Singh
Kantesh Balani
c. President’s council of student advisors: This committee will consist of PhD students/junior scientists from different academia and national labs. More members are to be added soon to this committee.
Soumitra Das, IISc (Convener)
Deepa Mishra, IISc
Shremoyee De, IIT Delhi K.V. Pratheesh, SCTIMST, Trivandrum d. SBAOI representatives for IUSBSE Executive Board: Ashok Kumar, IIT Kanpur Neetu Singh, IIT Delhi The discussion on the following committees could not be proceeded as the online connection had continuity problems and the meeting had to be terminated. President proposes the constitution of the following committees. e. Education and Publication committee: The role of this committee to enhance the visibility of the SBAOI journal as well as to organize outreach programs or webinars for the members. This committee will also look at the issue of plagiarism in the papers published in SBAOI journal. Ashok Kumar (Convener)
T S Sampath Kumar, IIT Madras
A. Ballamurugan, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
K. Kaladhar, AMRITA, Kochi
f. President’s Advisory committee: The role of this committee is to make strategic planning for the sustained growth of SBAOI. The constitution is as follows, C P Sharma (Convener)
Veena Koul, IIT Delhi (immediate Past President)
H K Varma, SCTIMST, Trivandrum (Past President)
g. Industrial affairs committee: The role of this committee is to develop strategies to meaningfully engage the MNC/MSME/start ups in the area of biomaterials. The constitution is as follows and more members to be added. Arvind Sinha, CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur (Convener)
Subrata Mukherjee, TATA Steel New Materials Business
h. Program and Membership committee: The role of this committee is to pursue membership drive across the academia, national labs and industries, both in India and South Asia. The convener of the SBAOI annual meeting will be the special invitee to all the meetings of this committee. T. M. Sridhar (Convener)
S. Kanagaraj, IIT Guwahati
Debrupa Lahiri, IIT Roorkee
A. Siddharthan, Anna University, Chennai
i. Finance committee: The role of this committee is to regularly assess the financial status of the SBAOI and to ensure that all the financial documents from the past conferences are submitted to SBAOI, after due audit process. R.S. Jayasree, SCTIMST, Treasurer (Convener)
T.V. Anilkumar, SCTIMST, Trivandrum
T.M. Sridhar, SCTIMST, Trivandrum
R. Jayakumar, AMRITA, Kochi
B. Discussion on 2028 WBC:
We have submitted a bid for the 2028 World Biomaterials Congress (WBC) during WBC 2020, and SFB USA is our competitor. Dr. Sharma indicated that IUSBSE were supposed to meet in April-June but no decision was taken so far and, Prof. Ashok Kumar and Neetu Singh will be representing SBAOI in the next meeting. He suggested them to present our case diplomatically such a way that SBAOI will win the bid. Dr. Lakshmi Nair also indicated that the meeting was postponed because of COVID and no discussion has been taken place till now on 2028 bid. Dr. Ashok Kumar assured that along with Dr. Neetu Singh the case will be taken up strongly.
President thanks all the members of the executive committee for their valuable time and contributions to the discussion.
Meeting ended at 6:00 PM.
Prof. Bikramjit Basu
President