Biological sex and gender-based constructs contribute significantly to the diversity of disease outcomes and treatment responses across the life course. To promote research considering sex and gender, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) launched the Specialized Centers of Research Excellence (SCORE) on sex differences program. The Career Enhancement Core (CEC) of the Johns Hopkins SCORE on Sex and Age Differences in Immunity to Influenza (SADII) partnered with the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine, which matched NIH funding to support seed grants. Over 3 years we awarded 12 (10 were women faculty) seed grants to early-stage investigators. One year after the award, the seed grant awardees highlighted their progress, including publications, grant applications, and abstracts. All awardees noted challenges with their progress related to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain delays and shared suggestions for improving the programming of the CEC. They also highlighted the multiple ways the awards had helped them gain pilot data toward larger grants, build collaborative relationships, and present at the annual SCORE symposium. We describe a model and evidence supporting a private-academic collaboration to support the careers of early-stage investigators conducting research related to sex and gender.
Keywords: early-stage investigators; pilot grants; private–academic partnership; sex as a biological variable.