About
The UW–Madison Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program has a mission to improve women’s health by developing a scientific workforce capable of leading independently funded research programs in women’s health and/or sex and gender differences research. The UW BIRCWH program provides career development opportunities through competency-based curricular activities, mentored research training, and pioneering new approaches to team science and career coaching.
A rich foundation of distinguished program leadership, accomplished program faculty, and expansive institutional resources provides an outstanding environment to foster the next generation of leaders in women’s health research.
The UW BIRCWH program is committed to building a diverse and inclusive learning environment across a wide spectrum of dimensions (gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, discipline, etc.). The program acknowledges the fluidity of gender identity (e.g., woman, man, trans man, agender, gender-diverse, nonbinary), noting gender is self-identified, may change throughout an individual’s lifetime, and may or may not correspond to society’s cultural expectations based on biological sex traits.
The program is funded through a trans-NIH collaborative effort, administered by the Office of Research on Women’s Health.
Program Goals
The UW BIRCWH program aims to identify and prepare committed and capable scholars; expand scholar knowledge of women’s health and sex/gender research; enhance fundamental research skills; and foster independent research careers.
The program accomplishes these goals within an overarching career development framework designed to enhance motivation for research careers in women’s health and scientific and leadership self-efficacy that includes the following components:
- Strengthening the faculty mentoring network to enhance opportunities for early career faculty to develop innovative, interdisciplinary women’s health research collaborations and cross-disciplinary networks.
- Providing competency-based career development in the design, conduct, and dissemination of high-quality women’s health and sex/gender differences research, including curricular innovations in team science.
- Fostering team mentoring and developing novel mentee/mentor training to support all aspects of scholar career development by building on established institutional expertise in mentoring programs.
- Establishing rigorous program oversight and evaluation tailored to competencies and milestones aligned with program expectations for scholars.
