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School of Medicine Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Medical School

Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers
in Women’s Health (BIRCWH)

Eligibility Requirements

The BIRCWH program is designed for junior faculty who have the potential to establish their own funded research programs. The eligibility requirements for prospective BIRCWH Scholars are as follows:

  1. Must be U.S. citizens or non–citizen nationals, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-55) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident.
  2. Obtained a clinical doctorate or Ph.D. degree or its equivalent; and have completed any postgraduate training normally expected for a faculty appointment in their field including clinical or postdoctoral fellowship training, or residency if they have chosen not to sub–specialize.
  3. Must have faculty appointment in the VCU School of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Allied Health, Dentistry, or the College of Humanities and Sciences.
  4. Must not have served as the principal investigator or equivalent on an NIH research project (R01) or Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K08) or their equivalent, a subproject of a program project (P01) or center grant (P50, U54), or equivalent PHS research grant awards.

Further eligibility will be determined by cooperation of the scholar’s home department (whether the potential scholar is a current VCU faculty member or an outside applicant applying to be hired by VCU); department chairs must commit to at least 75 percent release time for research and research career development; appropriate space and departmental resources for the scholar’s proposed research; and departmental support for the scholar to work in labs and clinics outside the home department. Department chairs who wish to involve the VCU BIRCWH program in recruiting new highly qualified junior faculty dedicated to women’s health research will be encouraged to do so.

BIRCWH Scholars are required to commit a minimum of 75 percent effort to research, although some flexibility is possible for clinical investigators. Annual support from the BIRCWH grant can be used for salary support or support of research. Selection of candidates is competitive.

BIRCWH Scholars are required to apply for independent research grant support. Although NIH requires that BIRCWH salary support be terminated when a Scholar receives extramural funding, Scholars may still participate in the training and mentoring aspects of the BIRCWH program.