This year is the 5th anniversary of one of ORWH’s signature research programs, the U3 Administrative Supplement Program, which supports research focused on women of populations often understudied, underrepresented, and underreported in clinical research. ORWH marks this important milestone with the launch of the U3 Interdisciplinary Research webpage, which describes the concept behind the U3 framework and highlights the projects and researchers funded by the U3 administrative supplements.    

The U3 Administrative Supplement Program supports projects highlighting common sources of disparities in the health of women and girls, with an emphasis on studies that integrate measures beyond the individual level and consider perspectives from multiple disciplines. Projects span a broad range of research topics studied at the preclinical, clinical, behavioral, and translational levels. Since its inception, the program has supported 70 different projects in more than 20 states across the United States. 

On the Current and Previous ORWH U3 Projects page, users can explore current and previous U3 projects through an interactive map. The map will display descriptions of each U3 project when a data point is selected. Project data points can also be sorted by a specific U3 population (e.g., socioeconomically disadvantaged, underserved rural population, and sexual and gender minorities). This page will also feature a U3 Investigator and discusses the project they are currently working on.  

Other U3 resources available include: 

• Resources and tools relevant to disparities in women and social determinants of health on the U3 Publications and Resources page.  
• Recordings of recent and previous webinars with U3 researchers and other experts in women’s health and health disparities research on the U3 Women’s Health Lecture Series page.  
• A fact sheet describing each of the three Us (understudied, underrepresented, and underreported), and data points to illustrate the significance of each term within the U3 framework. 

April is National Minority Health Month and ORWH continues to support the critical role research plays in combatting health disparities. It is not only important that underrepresented populations be included in research but also important that studies be specifically designed to focus on the interplay within and across factors and systems that lead to and perpetuate health inequity.