Mayo Clinic Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health

ABSTRACT The Mayo Clinic BIRCWH program has been funded for two cycles since 2010. Over the 9 years of the BIRCWH program, we have demonstrated progress toward our long term goal of increasing the science workforce of interdisciplinary teams translating scientific discoveries into clinical practice to improve women’s health. Evidence of this success is provided by the fifteen scholars trained in the BIRCWH program who enhanced the interdisciplinary research in women’s health at Mayo Clinic. BIRCWH scholars received 61 grants as Principle Investigators with a return of investment of $2.91 per NIH dollar as Principle Investigators and $30.2 per NIH dollar as Principle Investigators or Co-Investigators. Our short-term goal in this cycle is to provide training to investigators who can assume leadership roles in interdisciplinary research teams in women’s health. In order to achieve these goals, our program plan is structured around three aims that align with the three pillars of the BIRCWH program: interdisciplinary research, mentoring, and career development. First, we aim to recruit a diverse group of early-stage investigators with an outstanding potential to lead interdisciplinary research teams in women’s health. Our second aim is to provide both structured and tailored educational experiences based on career development needs that include didactic programs and a mentored research experience in an interdisciplinary environment. And finally, we aim to partner with other BIRCWH programs, career development programs within Mayo Clinic, and nationally, to enhance training in women’s health research and foster a community of scholars. A strong community of fellow scholars and established investigators in women’s health research provides the networking opportunities and supports collaborations essential for sustaining and developing new interdisciplinary research programs. The rich environment of other career development programs at Mayo Clinic such as the Mayo Clinic Center for Translational and Clinical Science (CCaTS) and the Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences programs, training in incorporating sex as a biological variable in research, and our collaborations with the BIRCWH programs at other institutions provide outstanding networking opportunities for our scholars.