Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Womens Health

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Center for InterdisciplinaryResearch in Womens
Health

• CIRWH

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Background

• Founded February 1, 2002
• Funded by the Offices of the Dean of Medicine and
  the President of UTMB
• Administratively located in the School of
  Medicine

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Administration
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Mission

• To promote, stimulate and support
  interdisciplinary research related to the health
  of women across the life span.

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Goals

• Increase collaborations on research projects in
  womens health
• Increase funding for womens health research at
  UTMB by assisting junior and senior faculty with
  proposals
• Increase visibility of womens health research at
  UTMB

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I. Increase collaborations

• Across the UTMB campus
• With other UTMB centers
• With other UT campuses

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A. Increase collaboration on campus

• Campus-wide directory lists womens health
  researchers

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Increase collaboration on campus

• Directory sorted by research cores

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Increase collaboration on campus

• Descriptions of researchers appear in directory

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Increase collaboration on campus

• Seminar Series
• Provide a forum for exchange of ideas
• Encourage innovation and excitement

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Increase collaboration on campus
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B. Partner with other centers

• Meeting with deans, center directors and program
  directors to discuss collaborations in
• n Aging n Neurosciences
• n School of Nursing n Vaccine Center
• Offering assistance recruiting faculty with
  interest in womens health
• Planning to set up research groups

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C. Partner with other UT schools

• Meeting with UT Austin Executive Vice
  President/Provost and others to begin talks on
  collaborations

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Goals

• Increase collaborations on research projects in
  womens health
• Increase funding for womens health research at
  UTMB by assisting junior and senior faculty with
  proposals
• Increase visibility of womens health research at
  UTMB

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II. Increase funding

• Teach grant-writing skills
• Provide assistance for grant applications
• Announce new funding opportunities
• Establish seed grants for innovative projects
• Encourage training grant submissions

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A. Teach grant-writing skills

• Establish a Writing Effectiveness Group (WEG) for
  junior faculty

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CIRWH WEG Scholars

• Concepcion D. Arrastia, M.D., Assistant
  Professor, Obstetrics Gynecology
• Beth Auslander, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Pediatrics
• Jennifer Bard, J.D., Assistant Professor,
  Institute for the Medical Humanities
• Shilla Chakrabarty, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Obstetrics Gynecology
• John (Al) Copland, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Internal Medicine

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CIRWH WEG Scholars

• Loree Primeau, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Occupational Therapy
• Laura Romo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Obstetrics Gynecology
• Stacy Sell, Ph.D., Post Doctoral Fellow,
  Pharmacology Toxicology
• Andrea Witlin, D.O., Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
  Obstetrics Gynecology
• Helen Wu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Obstetrics
  Gynecology
• Dragoslava (Gaga) Zivadinovic, Ph.D., Post
  Doctoral Fellow, Human Biological Chemistry
  Genetics

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Writing Effectiveness Group

• Begins with eight-hour writing course
• Followed by eleven monthly sessions
• Participants review documents, exchange ideas,
  offer opinions in small group sessions
• One session focuses on biostatistics and research
  design
• Other expertise brought in as needed
• Program ends with draft of manuscript, grant
  proposal or both

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Summary of WEG Curriculum

• Writing productivity
• Nuts and bolts of effective scientific writing
• Controlling word choice and sentence structure
• Developing paragraphs and extended arguments
• Writing successful research articles
• Writing successful research grant proposals

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B. Assist with grant applications

• Obtained editorial help from Dept. of Ob/Gyn for
  womens health grant proposals
• Mac McConnell will oversee assistance
• Hired additional editor to handle increased work
  load

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Assist with grant applications
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Assist with grant applications

• Assisted with two NIH grant proposals to date
• (K23 and NIJ application)
• Contact Mac McConnell to arrange assistance

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C. Announce funding opportunities

• Post grant announcements regularly on the web page

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Announce funding opportunities

• Send regular, targeted emails about new grant
  opportunities to CIRWH members and selected
  faculty

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D. Provide seed grants

• Will award four grants in 2002-2003
• First application deadline is Oct. 15
• Recipients will be announced Jan. 15

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E. Encourage training grant submissions

• K24 submitted 2/1/02
• K23 submitted 6/1/02 and 10/1/02
• K12 submitted 3/13/02
• Minority supplement submitted 7/15/02

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Goals

• Increase collaborations on research projects in
  womens health
• Increase funding for womens health research at
  UTMB by assisting junior and senior faculty with
  proposals
• Increase visibility of womens health research at
  UTMB

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III. Increase visibility of research and
researchers

• On campus
• In the community
• Nationally

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A. Increase visibility on campus

• Web page

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B. Increase visibility in the community

• Articles in Impact and local papers
• National Womens Health Week community event

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C. Increase national visibility

• Symposium on Cancer in Women to be held May 16,
  2003

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Future goals

• Work with the Office of the Vice President for
  Research to invite NIH speakers to provide
  information about seeking grants in womens
  health
• Expand seminar series to include outside speakers

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Future goals

• Increase outreach to the community
• Establish volunteer council
• Produce and distribute newsletter
• Hire a grant writer for program project grants
• Become a Sealy Center of Excellence

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Continuing improvement

• February 6 seminar session will be an annual
  meeting for feedback from CIRWH members
• Instituting board of internal and external
  consultants

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Center for InterdisciplinaryResearch in Womens
Health

• CIRWH