Saturday, May 10, 2025
5/10/2025
UTMB Women's Health Research Scholars Program - Abstract The goal of the UTMB BIRCWH program, now in its 14th year, is to launch Scholars into successful careers as independent researchers in women’s health. We have achieved this for 3 cycles with 83% of former Scholars obtaining 57 external grants as PI worth $32.7 million in total costs. With generous support from UTMB’s President, we request a 4th cycle to support 3 assistant professors for 2-3 years each for a total of 6 Scholars over 5 years. Our program recruits internally from our highly diverse campus and externally using a tiered pipeline that includes 6 Hispanic-serving institutions in the University of Texas system. Over the last 5 years, we received 44 eligible applicants for 5 vacancies. Of the 5 admitted, 40% were from underrepresented groups proving we attract diverse, high quality candidates. Three Associate Directors with expertise in public health, biostatistics, drug development, molecular biology, and health services research will work with the PD/PI to ensure robust leadership and an interdisciplinary focus for all program activities. Scholars will be guided by 2 or more of our 20 Mentors, working in 4 inter-professional teams built from existing collaborations in areas of strength on our campus: Reproductive Health, Aging, Infectious Diseases, and Health Disparities/Hispanic Health. UTMB offers unique opportunities in Hispanic Health research, and all Scholars will be encouraged to interact with this team. Three Mentors from MD Anderson or Baylor College of Medicine, who have long-term collaborations with our program, will offer Scholars additional mentoring, collaboration, and networking opportunities. Our Mentors all have extensive publication records in women’s health, external funding as PI (average of $1.37 million per year) and strong mentoring histories. They have a long history of co-publishing with each other and their mentees, demonstrating effective use of team science. Our expanded Resource Lab will provide guidance in study methodology, biostatistics, and navigating IRB processes. Once appointed, Scholars will make Individual Development Plans and tailor their didactic experiences accordingly. All must demonstrate competence in 10 objectives that define the fundamental knowledge, skills, and attitudes of an accomplished investigator. Our program devotes significant time to mentoring and specialized seminars, including Specific Aims development meetings. Experiential learning includes individual instruction in writing and career development interactions with senior leaders on campus. We have added training in bioinformatics, sex and gender research, and a requirement for Scholars to mentor biomedical students to prepare Scholars for advanced academic roles. An external review of Scholars, Directors, Mentors, Resource Lab, and program processes occurs annually. Scholars must submit evidence of national presentations, published manuscripts, and progress toward independent funding. The Advisory Committee reviews all evaluation data and confirms each Scholar’s continuation for another year. Renewal of this highly successful program will enable diverse junior faculty to launch independent careers and make important contributions in women’s health.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).