The Mayo Clinic Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program has matured since we enrolled our first scholar in 2011. The short-term goal of the program is to recruit and train outstanding investigators in interdisciplinary women's health research, and the long-term goal is to build and sustain a viable pool of investigators with synergistic projects who will lead the translation of scientific finding into better health for women. In this renewal application, the focus of our program is sharpened, the strengths of the program are preserved, and several novel elements that were introduced during the current funding cycle are expanded. The training and mentoring of our scholars is provided by renowned basic, clinical, and translational scientists in a collegial and innovative academic environment in a patient-centered institution. Our scholars have achieved success in collaborative research activities, have obtained competitive funding, have publishing manuscripts, have receiving extramural leadership positions, and have engaged in transformational clinical initiatives. During the current funding cycle, we have introduced three innovations: 1) we developed closer and mutually beneficial ties with the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS; 1UL1RR024150) to support the educational component of our program; 2) we integrated our scholars into the Mayo Clinic Specialized Center of Research on Sex Differences (SCOR; AG044170) as a focus for research activities and opportunity for involvement in team science, where appropriate; and 3) we established a Regional BIRCWH Partnership consisting of the Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin BIRCWH programs to broaden and extend opportunities for career development through colleagiality, collaboration, and mentoring. These three novel elements, built upon our core program, were designed to facilitate synergies with the Mayo Clinic CCaTS and with our neighboring BIRCWH programs. The research leadership at Mayo Clinic recognizes the importance of the BIRCWH program in fostering our institutional commitment to women's health, and will support one additional BIRCWH scholar during the next funding cycle (2015-2020). Each scholar will generally be enrolled for up to 3 years, and at any point in time, we will have funding to support 3 scholars (2 with NIH funding and 1 with Mayo funding). Our scholars will generally be junior faculty members with a doctoral degree (e.g., MD or PhD). These innovations and the strong institutional support distinguish our BIRCWH program from other programs in the country.
In this renewal application for the Mayo Clinic Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH), the focus of our program is sharpened, the strengths of the program are preserved, and several novel elements that were introduced during the current funding cycle are expanded. Our scholars have achieved success in collaborative research activities, funding, publishing, participating in extramural leadership activities, and transformational clinical initiatives. Innovations and institutional support for ths renewal application distinguish our BIRCWH program from others in the country: 1) the development of closer and mutually beneficial ties with the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS; 1UL1RR024150); 2) the integration of our scholars into the Mayo Clinic Specialized Center of Research on Sex Differences (SCOR; AG044170), where appropriate; 3) the establishment of a 'Regional BIRCWH Partnership' consisting of the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, and University of Wisconsin BIRCWH programs; and 4) the support by Mayo Clinic of one additional scholar during the next funding cycle.
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