The US National Institutes of Health has awarded about $6 million in grants to 12 US universities and medical centres in the fifth funding round of a career-development programme in women's health research. Up to 60 junior researchers will take part in the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health programme, as principal investigators can select up to five junior-level researchers from their institution or others. Some 378 early-career scientists have participated in the development programme, which launched in 2000, and many have since written their own grant applications. “This is a step to independence,” says Joyce Rudick, NIH director of programmes and management.