Fostering Interdisciplinary Research

Today interdisciplinary collaboration is an important component of clinical research. This paper focuses on how the University of Washington School of Nursing (UW-SON) Center for Women's Health and Gender Research (CWHGR) facilitated and sustained interdisciplinary research. The CWHGR funded by National Institutes of Nursing Research has been an important resource for the UW-SON since its inception in 1989. The CWHGR encourages interdisciplinary collaborative research by providing small grant funds, mentoring faculty and pre- and postdoctoral fellows, providing consultation to researchers in other disciplines, and creating a model of biobehavioral and sociocultural research collaboration that facilitates interdisciplinary research. A brief overview of the UW-SON CWHGR is provided as well as identification of barriers to interdisciplinary research.