UIC Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health Program

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The overall goal of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program is to foster research career development of junior faculty members engaged in research relevant to the health of women and to the understanding of how sex as a biological variable influences health and disease. We are based in the University of Illinois College of Medicine, but draw on the interdisciplinary strengths of UIC’s seven health colleges, including the only School of Public Health in the Chicagoland area. Over the next 5 years, we aim to train 8 junior faculty, including 4 MDs and 4 PhDs, in research relevant to women’s health and/or the use of both sexes to understand the influence of biological sex of health and disease. Scholars will have 75% protected time for BIRCWH activities (50% for surgeons) and $35,000 in career development funds matched by $25,000 in institutional support. The Multiple Program Director/Multiple Principal Investigator (mPD/mPI) plan involves a PhD clinical scientist and an MD basic/translational scientist, each with strong records of success in research relevant to the health of women and mentoring. Thirty-five senior mentors with records of NIH funding in interdisciplinary research will be available to participate in Scholar mentor teams. We will build upon our demonstrated success across three BIRCWH funding cycles in mentoring 26 BIRCWH Scholars and 1 BIRCWH Postdoctoral Trainee to date. Leveraging the highly interdisciplinary environment and strong institutional support, we will use evidence-based mentoring practices to advance our short-term objectives, including: a) supplementing team, peer, and individual mentoring programs with didactic and interactive Mentor training and new Scholar career development tools; b) implementing the UIC BIRCWH Bridging the Scientific Workforce Initiative by incorporating new models of collaboration and institutional support that bridge basic, translational and clinical science approaches to create innovation at the interface between disciplines thereby improving the competitive edge of all scholars; c) fostering partnerships with UIC’s NIH-funded Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS, UIC’s CTSA) and KL2 program, the UIC Alcohol Research Center, and AI.Health4All (a center for artificial intelligence and health technological innovation); and d) augmenting our strong didactic curriculum in research relevant to the health of women across the lifespan with new training initiatives in data science and management, precision medicine, comorbidity/multimorbidity, and prevention research and care, all priority areas identified by the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). These UIC BIRCWH activities will accelerate the translation of knowledge into improved health care for women*