During our Institutional Biosafety Committees conference (held August 18th and 19th) we discussed using the conference website as a future resource of information. We are pleased to offer all the material that was presented to you at the conference on this website.

The major objective of the conference was to explore the foundations of safe science, the relationship between the IBC, IRB, and IACUC, review best IBC management practices, and promote professional networking. Representatives from the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities presented the fundamentals of the NIH guidelines governing IBCs and answered questions addressing specific concerns of the institutions represented there. A novel aspect of this conference was the IBC Self-Assessment Tool which was distributed to the attendees and incorporated best management practices discussed in the breakout sessions and will be built upon over the next several months.

Important conference outcomes were:

• Better understanding of the basic roles and responsibilities of the IBC, its members, and those individuals who interact with the IBC
• Availability and openness of NIH OBA experts to discuss and clarify the NIH guidelines
• IBC Self-Assessment Tool and subsequent peer reviews
• Website to provide conference materials and examples of policies, procedures, forms, training materials, etc