Creation of a grant support service within a Women's Health Center of Excellence: experiences and lessons learned

The Research Support Core (RSC) began in the Women's Health Center of Excellence at Wake Forest University Health Sciences to (1) augment the institution's capacity to win grants in women's health and (2) assist women faculty in obtaining extramural funding.

The RSC began in July 2002 with a director, a research associate/scientific editor, and a budget specialist (total 0.7 full-time equivalents [FTE]). Its main functions were preaward grant assistance and education through workshops on grants and manuscripts. The purpose of this paper is to report the early experience (years 1 and 2: July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2004) of this service.

From year 1 to year 2, the number of grant applications the RSC worked on rose 153% (from 17 to 43). Total dollars requested increased 2.5-fold, from 11.9 million US dollars in year 1 to 41.8 million US dollars in year 2. A total of 1.8 million US dollars was awarded or anticipated, with 27 applications pending. Overall, 38 faculty members from 18 academic departments received grant assistance. Of these, 100% of Core users who returned evaluations reported that they would use the RSC again and would recommend it to others. During this same period, nearly 500 people attended the 19 educational workshops on grants and manuscripts.

As a result of this experience, the RSC was expanded and moved to the institution's Office of Research as a resource to all faculty. Assistance to women faculty and faculty conducting women's health research remain strong components of the RSC.