This application is for competitive renewal of UNC's BIRCWH Award. The mission of the UNC BIRCWH Program is to promote recruitment, retention, and sustained advancement of biomedical careers in women's health. Our Program philosophy is based on three central concepts: adaptability, diversity, and excellence. To achieve our mission the UNC BIRCWH program will: 1) provide mentored career development of junior scientists pursing women's health or sex/gender research; 2) create interdisciplinary research teams to enhance women's health research; and 3) facilitate the translation of these research findings to improve community health. We expect UNC BIRCWH graduates will go on to become the next generation of leaders, teachers and mentors in women's health and sex/gender research in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industry. The UNC BIRCWH curriculum is tailored to the background and training of each Scholar. All Scholars participate in focused didactic programs and have an intensive research experience with mentors drawn from multiple disciplines. In this renewal application, we have focused on several key research themes, while emphasizing sex/gender influences in health and disease: 1) Cancers Affecting Women; 2) Nutrition, Obesity, and Diabetes; 3) Quantitative Pharmacology; 4) Infectious Diseases; and 5) Alcohol/Substance Abuse/Mental Health. These themes are highly relevant to women's health; typify interdisciplinary collaboration; and represent major strengths and areas of research emphasis at UNC. Numerous nationally and globally recognized scientists in these key areas and in crosscutting disciplines have committed to mentoring our BIRCWH Scholars. During our first 3 cycles of funding, the UNC BIRCWH Program has been hugely successful. Thus far, we have supported a total of 33 junior faculty members who exhibit broad diversity in terms of discipline, academic home, gender, ethnicity, and type of research. Their success is overwhelming: 90% of our graduates have independent federal or industry-sponsored funding, totally over $35 million in support. Furthermore, BIRCWH graduates also hold many leadership positions, including Program Director, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development. The success of our graduates best exemplifies the impact of the UNC BIRCWH Program on the women's health research community. We are convinced that our approach advances our mission to promote recruitment, retention, and sustained advancement of biomedical careers in women's health.
The goal of the UNC-CH BIRCWH Program is to create a training program that will prepare promising junior investigators to conduct innovative research in women's health and sex/gender influences in health and disease. Through their mentored, interdisciplinary training, these Scholars will be ideally positioned to make important new observations and then translate them into advancements that will improve the health of women throughout the community.
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