This application seeks the competitive renewal of UNC's BIRCWH Program. Our goal is to select, train, and mentor junior faculty members as they transition to research independence. While Scholars may have doctorates in clinical or non-clinical disciplines, each must be fully committed to a career as an independent investigator in an area of direct relevance to women's health. The vehicles that will be employed to train the Scholars include: a seminar series; courses in such core competencies as epidemiology, biostatistics, and the responsible conduct of research; career development activities designed to provide the skills needed to develop, conduct, and then share research results in presentations, publications, and grant proposals; and the protected time that is essential to engage in intensive mentored research. We have centered this career development program around three general research themes: Etiology to Therapeutics; Prevention and Intervention; and Health Issues of the Mature Woman. Each of these themes is: very much relevant to women's health; well-suited to interdisciplinary collaboration; and an area of considerable strength here at UNC. Evidence of this strength is reflected by the experienced mentors who are included in this application. As should be evident from this application, the BIRCWH has proven to be an exciting addition to the UNC women's health research community. During its initial 41/2 years, our BIRCWH award has been able to support a total of 17 junior faculty members drawn from 3 Schools on the Health Affairs campus. These Scholars include: 9 MDs, 1 PharmD, 6 PhDs, and 1 MD-PhD. Their spectrum of research is quite diverse, ranging from basic science to translational and patient-oriented research to population science. One measure of the success of our BIRCWH is that the 12 Scholars who have now """"""""graduated"""""""" from the BIRCWH are Pis on more than $2.3 million per year in NIH grants. These 12 former and the 5 current Scholars have not only enriched our traditional areas of strength, but have also helped to build a critical mass in new areas of women's health research. In this renewal, our administrative structure includes a Principal Investigator (PI), 2 Program Directors, and an Advisory Committee. Robust institutional support includes additional research development funds for each Scholar and a special provision to assure minority recruitment.
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