NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
Office of the Director
Division of Program Coordination,
Planning and Strategic Initiatives
Office of Research on Women’s Health
October 11, 2012
Office of Research on Women’s Health Announces New Awards to Support
Interdisciplinary Research Careers of Junior Faculty in Women’s Health
The National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and other cosponsors recently awarded almost $6 million to 14 new and continuing Building Interdisciplinary
Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) programs nationwide. This is the sixth
funding round of an innovative, interdisciplinary career development program for men and
women in women’s health research.
The ORWH developed and established the BIRCWH program in 2000 to foster the research
careers of junior faculty by providing them with the protected time to conduct their research and
by pairing them with senior investigators in a mentored, interdisciplinary, scientific environment.
The goal is to bridge scholars’ advanced training with independent research in areas that cut
across scientific disciplines and fields in women’s health including basic, clinical and
translational research. Since inception, ORWH has awarded 63 grants to 39 institutions and more
than 488 junior faculty have been sponsored by the program, 80 percent of whom are women.
The majority have gone on to obtain independent NIH research project grant funding. In FY
2012, 29 programs were active across the United States.
The awards are a trans-NIH collaborative effort. This sixth round of BIRCWH programs is
supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD), the National Cancer Institute , the National Institute on Aging, the
National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Institute on
Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition to ORWH, the
programmatic oversight for these BIRCWH programs also resides in NIDA and the grants
management oversight for most of the programs is in NICHD.
"During the past decade, interdisciplinary research is increasingly recognized to be critical for
advancing the understanding of complex medical conditions that affect women. The BIRCWH
initiative is now serving as a model of how to approach research and career development not
only in women’s health research but also in other fields. The expansion of the BIRCWH
initiative will ensure that the cadre of women’s health researchers who can translate
interdisciplinary research findings is maintained serving to catalyze improvements in the health
of women in the nation” said Janine Austin Clayton, M.D., director of ORWH.
Principal investigators and institutions receiving fiscal year 2012 BIRCWH awards include:
Nancy Andrews, M.D., Duke University, Raleigh
James Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., Magee Women’s Research Institute, Pittsburgh
Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D. Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
Andrea Dunaif, M.D., Northwestern University, Chicago
Daniel Dorsa.,M.D., Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland
Carol Weismann, Ph.D.., Penn State, Hershey
Marie Krousel-Wood, M.D., M. P.H., Tulane University, New Orleans
Judith Regensteiner, Ph.D., University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver
Stacie Geller, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Chicago
Thomas Curry, Ph.D.,University of Kentucky, Lexington
Pat Langenberg, Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore
Nancy Raymond, M.D., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Gloria Sarto, M.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
Katherine Hartmann, M.D., Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Nashville
"It is essential to support the next generation of researchers in women’s health," said Alan E.
Guttmacher, M.D., director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD). "By providing for the career development of junior
investigators, the BIRCWH awards help to assure that groundbreaking research and treatment
advances continue in the future”.
The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH,
which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating
the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes
program offices which are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH.
Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od/.
The Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH), Office of the Director, National Institutes
of Health (NIH) serves as a focal point for women's health research at the NIH. For more
information about NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, visit http://orwh.od.nih.gov/.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — is
comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical,
and translational medical research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.