The Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology provides funding for investigators who are advancing sex-specific and sex-differentiating knowledge about novel therapeutic interventions, conducting systems-based investigations, and building interdisciplinary collaborations for disease-based research in conditions that are exclusive, predominate or differential in women.
Connors funding encourages new and innovative research that helps us train new leaders in women’s health and have the potential to transform medicine and patient care.
For more information about Connors Center Funding Opportunities, please contact ConnorsCenter@bwh.harvard.edu
Our 2023 WHISPR Application Cycle is now open. The Research Proposal Cover Sheet is due January 23, 2023 and Final Proposals are due February 6th.
The goal of the Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Stress Program of Research (WHISPR) is to advance our understanding of how physiological and psychological stress affect women’s health and disease, and vice versa, by supporting pilot projects, facilitating interactions among WHISPR investigators and other stress researchers, and hosting an annual scientific symposium for the BWH academic community. For more information about WHISPR, visit our WHISPR webpage.
2 awards up to $25,000/each will be awarded.
- Symposium with Finalists’ Pitch Presentations: May 4, 2023
Application Materials:
This award is funded by the Gretchen S. Fish Fund for Women’s Health and Stress Research.
Applications are open for the Gayle Brinkenhoff IGNITE Award for Breast Cancer Research. Coversheets are due February 24 and full applications are due March 10.
The Gayle Brinkenhoff IGNITE Pilot Award for Breast Cancer Researchaims to promote and support pilot and proof-of-concept studies in the specific area of breast cancer aimed at advancing our understanding of disease mechanisms, treatment, and related health impacts, with the ultimate goal of generating pilot data to support further funding for larger translational projects. Projects can include development and utilization of novel diagnostics and therapeutics – drugs, devices, and digital strategies targeting breast cancer, as well as health services research, and clinical research projects focused on the course of breast cancer and its treatments. Studies that also involve other cancers in women together with breast cancer will be considered.
This $50,000 award (inclusive of 20% indirect costs) will support one Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigator to conduct a new, innovative project for one year. Applications that have high potential for translational impact are encouraged.
Application Materials:
The 2022-23 Round of BWH Connors Center IGNITE Awards is no longer accepting coversheets.
These $50,000 awards will support one Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigator to conduct new and innovative projects for one year. Up to three awards will be assigned. Applications that have high translational impact are particularly encouraged. This includes projects that focus on breast cancer and biomarker discovery and drug delivery systems in all disease areas affecting women exclusively, predominately and differentially.
One of these awards is reserved for a specialized award – the Cardiac and Vascular IGNITE Award . This award will be given to support one Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigator to conduct research in the field of cardio-metabolic and vascular diseases in women and/or sex- and gender-differences in cardio-metabolic and vascular diseases, including studies on disease mechanisms, biomarkers, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The 2022-23 Round of the Connors BWH-MGB Collaborative IGNITE Awards is no longer accepting coversheets.
One Connors BWH-MGB Collaborative IGNITE will support a BWH principal investigator who is collaborating with an investigator from another MGB institution on a joint project in the specific area of expertise of the candidates, aimed at advancing our understanding of female-specific and sex-differentiating factors in the development and utilization of novel diagnostics and therapeutics – drugs, devices, and digital strategies – for diseases affecting women exclusively, predominately, or differentially. A joint project from a BWH investigator and a Mass General Brigham investigator will be funded for $100,000 to support one year of work.
Application Materials for BWH Connors Center IGNITE Awards and Connors BWH-MGB Collaborative IGNITE Awards:
For more information about the IGNITE Program, please visit our IGNITE webpage. Please direct any questions to ConnorsCenter@bwh.harvard.edu.
The IGNITE Awards are made possible through generous contributions from Jennifer Toolin McAuliffe, our BWH Women’s Health Advisory Board, Scott Schoen and Nancy Adams Research Fund in Women’s Vascular Disease, the Mass General Brigham Office of the Chief Academic Officer, and other generous donors to the BWH Connors Center.
The Brigham/Harvard ROSA Center is one of eleven Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences nationwide.
The 2022-23 application cycle for these awards is now closed. Please check back later for the next cycle’s dates.
The ROSA Center Pilot program is for early-stage investigators (postdocs and junior faculty). These Pilot awards are perfect for investigators seeking to obtain preliminary data in order to facilitate applications for future NIH K- or R-level awards. Up to four $50,000, 2-year awards will be granted. All awards must align with the ROSA Center and at least one of the awards will be reserved for projects that are focused on menopause.
Application Materials:
For more information, please visit our ROSA Webpage, email BWH_SCORE@partners.org.
Applications are currently not open for the Travel Exchange Fellowship
For more information about the ROSA Center, please visit our ROSA Webpage.
The ROSA Center Scholar Awards Application Cycle is currently closed.
Please visit our ROSA webpage for more information.
The 2023 application cycle for the First Look Awards is now open. Applications are due January 12, 2023 at 8pm EST
The First Look Awards are a collaboration between the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School. The goal of this grant program is to support translational research at Massachusetts research institutions that furthers our understanding of sex and gender differences especially for diseases or conditions that affect women exclusively, predominately, or differentially.
3 awards of up to $50,000/each will be awarded.
Application Materials:
