Kentucky BIRCWH Program: Training the Next Generation of Women's Health Researchers

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The BIRCWH Program at the University of Kentucky (UK) is built around three pillars: interdisciplinary research, mentoring, and career development. We will continue to provide the formal framework through which experienced faculty members who share common interests in women's health will offer mentoring to provide in-depth research experiences and didactic training to junior faculty members. Our goal is to provide UK BIRCWH scholars with opportunities for an interdisciplinary, mentored career development experience to facilitate their transition to become independent, extramurally funded investigators in women's health research. We choose to focus our scholarship efforts on those health challenges prevalent to Appalachian Kentucky. Because the Appalachian region is disproportionately affected by drug abuse, violence, and poor health, we will actively engage women living in Appalachian Kentucky in our research agenda with research flowing bidirectionally between communities and researchers. This approach will continue to provide our BIRCWH scholars with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary training leading to their development as faculty with independent NIH and extramural funding. The focused areas targeted towards improving women's health in this application include: 1) substance abuse, 2) violence against women, and 3) changes across a woman's lifespan. Through this BIRCWH program, strengthening the capacity for women's health research will be accomplished by the following Aims: 1) to provide the environment, mentorship, and facilities to enhance the ability of BIRCWH scholars to compete for NIH research grants in diverse areas of women's health research, 2) to deepen our understanding of the unique role of gender in the manifestation of health and disease, 3) to develop and implement new communication and social networking technologies to address women's health, 4) to personalize prevention, diagnostics, and therapeutics to address health disparities among women such as substance abuse and violence, 5) to stimulate new collaborations in focused, interdisciplinary, and interactive research areas that are essential for improving women's health; and 6) to use a thematic multidisciplinary focus as a platform for enhancing translational research between basic, clinical and public health scientists. The foundation of the BIRCWH program will continue to be practical research experiences within interdisciplinary teams guided by experienced mentors. As evident by the success of our former BIRCWH scholars, we are well positioned to continue the tradition of excellence in mentoring our scholars to become independent researchers in women's health.