University of Wisconsin Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Scholars Program

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Interdisciplinary women’s health research thrives at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) because of the environment of excellence, the culture of teamwork, the tradition of stellar research career development programs, and the expectation of collaboration between varied disciplines. This outstanding environment will foster the next generation of leaders in women’s health research. The UW BIRCWH will provide novel, competency-based training and career development opportunities for these future leaders. The UW BIRCWH vision is to improve women’s health by developing a scientific workforce capable of leading research programs in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research using the most advanced techniques in team science, community partnerships, and implementation science. The Multiple PIs bring extensive knowledge, experience, and skills in women’s health research, didactic training, mentoring, and research leadership. The program assembles 40 NIH-funded faculty mentors from 21 Departments in 14 Schools/Centers across UW and spanning four strategic priority areas aligned with the 2024-2028 ORWH draft Trans-NIH Strategic Plan for Women’s Health Research. The UW BIRCWH program aims to: a) identify/prepare committed and capable scholars; b) ensure scholars achieve rigorous and reproducible women’s health and sex differences research; c) enhance fundamental research skills; and d) foster fulfilling, funded, interdisciplinary research careers, increase productivity, and maximize impact. The UW BIRCWH will support four early career scholars for two to three years with the goal of attaining scientific independence and sustainable extramural support. The program will provide scholars with a competency-based curriculum, courses on leadership and women’s health, individualized experiential opportunities, and novel training in team science, the responsible conduct of research, community engagement, and implementation science. The program will align each scholar with at least three established faculty mentors, each with designated and complementary roles, to provide interdisciplinary team mentoring. The program will systematically gather actionable feedback from scholars, faculty mentors, and senior advisors to evaluate both process and outcome measures designed for continuous improvement, for programmatic evolution, and to ultimately meet program goals. UW BIRCWH leadership will complete the transition to a conceptual evaluation model called the Translational Sciences Benefits Model that ensures scholars’ research is translated to health outcomes and policy change to advance women’s health. The UW BIRCWH program will leverage a highly interdisciplinary environment, committed leadership, and ambitious early career faculty to fuel discoveries and accelerate translation to drive toward a future in which women’s health and sex differences research positively impacts all women, families, and communities.