NIH awards $3M to VCU to develop researchers in women’s health
7/21/2022, 6 p.m.
The Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.2 million grant to Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health. The grant supports VCU’s junior faculty who will develop as researchers in women’s health.
Over a five-year period, the Building In- terdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) grant will support eight to 10 junior faculty at VCU whose research focuses on five areas of women’s health: cancer, maternal child health, mental health and addiction, obesity and cardiovascular health, and neuro-musculoskeletal health.
“Understanding sex and gender influences on health and disease is critical to improving the health and well-being of both women and men,” said Susan G. Kornstein, principal investigator for the BIRCWH program and executive director of the VCU Institute for Women’s Health.
“The VCU BIRCWH Program will train and develop in-dependent investigators with a commitment to collaborative, interdisciplinary research in women’s health and sex and gender influences on health.”
The BIRCWH grant comes years after a $3 million grant was awarded to VCU Health in 2018 from the National Science Foundation for its ADVANCE-VCU project, which is focused on supporting the success of diverse women faculty in the university’s STEM departments.
