Program Orientation

While recognizing that each scholar has an individualized program and timeline, Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center has specific requirements and milestones.

After acceptance to the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program, an orientation is scheduled with incoming scholars, their mentors and program leadership to provide information regarding milestones, requirements, timelines and expectations.

  1. eRA Commons account setup:
  2. Meeting attendance:
    • Germination Lunch Meetings (monthly)
    • Progress meetings with BIRCWH Executive Advisory Committee (18-month midterm meeting with mentors)
    • Meetings with Research Finance (quarterly)
    • Annual National Institutes of Health (NIH) BIRCWH Meeting (annually each fall in Washington, D.C.)
    • Midwest BIRCWH Consortium Meeting (annual)
    • Additional career development activities (TBD throughout the year)
  3. NIH annual progress report:
    • Due March 1 (scholar due date), March 15 (NIH due date) — Grants, manuscripts, abstracts, presentations, promotions
  4. Financial compliance:
    • Certifying effort — must average 75% to 100% FTE (50% minimum for surgeons)
    • Salary and indirect rate fallout will be covered by the scholar's department or division
    • BIRCWH K12 Scholars
      • $40,000 for K12 research related expenses per year (May 1-April 30) — no carry forward
      • Travel — $3,000 per year (May 1-April 30) for travel related to K activities, including annual NIH BIRCWH meeting and Midwest BIRCWH Consortium Meeting — no carry forward
    • Women's Health Scholars
      • Funding for research and travel depends on the institutional funding source. Specifics will be shared by program leadership.
  5. Cite the grant on all publications:
    • This publication was supported by Grant Number K12 HD065987
  6. Submit all publications to PubMed Central including the BIRCWH grant in the funding.
  7. Submission of federal grant application (K or R series of DOD) by end of year 2.
  8. Didactic expectations/requirements:
    • CORE 6000 Responsible Conduct of Research (1) — required
    • CTSC 5300 Fundamental of Clinical Epidemiology (1)
    • CTSC 5600 Statistics in Clinical & Translational Research (2)
    • CTSC 5080 What Researchers Need to Know About Health Disparities (1)
    • CCaTS Write Winning Grants Workshop (full day) — required
    • CCaTS Writing for High Impact Publications Workshop (full day) — required
    • "Incorporating Sex as a Biological Variable in NIH Grants Workshop" — required
    • Women's Health Grand Rounds (weekly) and presentations highly encouraged
  9. Degree program options:
    • CCaTS Postdoctoral Master's Program — Jenny Lamberson
    • CCaTS Postdoctoral Certificate Program — John O'Brien
  10. Mentor & Scholar Agreement
  11. Outcomes reporting:

    At the end of the grant period, each scholar completes an exit survey, mentorship survey and post-program survey and participates in an exit interview.

    Upon completion of the program, scholars submit NIH biosketches that document their publications, grant support, academic rank and other scholarly activities.

    The BIRCWH program requests that scholars respond to an annual tracking survey and provide an up-to-date curriculum vitae and a general update about professional achievements on a regular basis.