title: Building the Women's Health Research Workforce: Fostering Interdisciplinary Research Approaches in Women's Health.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program is a mentored institutional research career development program developed to support and foster the interdisciplinary research careers of men and women junior faculty in women's health and sex/gender factors. The number of scholars who apply for and receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) research or career development grants is one proximate indicator of whether the BIRCWH program is being successful in achieving its goals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To present descriptive data on one metric of scholar performance-NIH grant application and funding rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grant applications were counted if the start date was 12 months or more after the scholar's BIRCWH start date. Two types of measures were used for the outcome of interest-person-based funding rates and application-based success rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grant application, person funding, and application success rates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred and ninety-three scholars had participated in BIRCWH as of November 1, 2012. Seventy-nine percent of BIRCWH scholars who completed training had applied for at least one competitive NIH grant, and 64% of those who applied had received at least one grant award. Approximately 68% of completed scholars applied for at least one research grant, and about half of those who applied were successful in obtaining at least one research award. Men and women had similar person funding rates, but women had higher application success rates for RoI grants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data were calculated for all scholars across a series of years; many variables can influence person funding and application success rates beyond the BIRCWH program; and lack of an appropriate comparison group is another substantial limitation to this analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that the BIRCWH program has been successful in bridging advanced training with establishing independent research careers for scholars.
authors.affiliation: Office of Research on Women's Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States.
authors.forename: Joan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Nagel
authors.affiliation: Center for Research on Women and Gender, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States.
authors.forename: Abby
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Guimond
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, United States.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Glavin
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States.
authors.forename: Stacie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geller
keywords: Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH); gender; sex