A year after announcing a special competition to recognize institutions that have “achieved sustained improvement in gender diversity,” representatives from 10 winning universities are scheduled this month to participate in a forum to share their “evidence-based practices, address challenges, and improve the existing career paradigm for many women in biomedical and behavioral science.”
The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) announced the winners on Aug. 5 but provided no information about their programs other than the name and a contact person.[1] The winning programs, which each received $50,000, were from a range of institutions, including the Rochester Institute of Technology, Florida International University and Boston University.
The award program “reflects and furthers ORWH’s work over the past 30 years in advancing women in biomedical careers. It also is a part of the work of the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers—which is co-chaired by NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., and me, as ORWH Director—in coordinating and leading various efforts across NIH to address the underrepresentation of women in biomedical careers,” Janine Austin Clayton, M.D., ORWH director and associate director for research on women’s health, said when the competition was announced Sept. 2, 2020.[2]