VA & NIH announce new partnership to advance Women’s Health research

VA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are pleased to offer NIH’s Office of Research on Women's Health Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) program to VA’s early career researchers, in a collaboration formalized in June 2025. The inaugural NIH-VA BIRCWH Scholars Program will pair VA junior investigators, known as VA-BIRCWH Scholars, with senior faculty from the BIRCWH program. BIRCWH is a mentored career development program that pairs scholars with senior faculty with shared interests in women’s health and sex differences research.  VA-BIRCWH Scholars, who will be current VA Office of Research and Development career development awardees, will join the BIRCWH community and receive mentorship in areas such as grant writing.

The VA will provide the BIRCWH Scholars community at large with training in health systems research and implementation science through VA’s Women's Health Research Network, a national resource for accelerating women Veterans’ health toward evidence-based policy and practice.

The synergies between VA and NIH across the full scientific translational spectrum will advance research for improving the health and healthcare of women. 

Questions can be directed to Anna Kasdan, PhD (anna.kasdan@va.gov).

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