Gender-based violence is understood as violence that results in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering, based on a person’s gender, where coercion or arbitrary deprivations of freedom occurs in public or private life. Gender is complex and a multi-level cultural construct structured by intersecting identities. Gender-based violence (GBV) occurs in Utah, from campus to the broader community, taking the form of incidents and patterns of violence toward intimate (or ex) partners, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, abuse and human trafficking. The creation of a consortium is a central strategy to engage communities to improve health and quality of life through research, knowledge creation and information sharing.

The Gender-Based Violence Consortium at the University of Utah brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars. The consortium is an inter-professional collaboration, a campus scholarly network that embodies an academic commitment to sharing knowledge, supporting long-term collaborations through research hubs, creating programming, sharing teaching and responding to gender-based violence in Utah. The GBVC received the University of Utah's 1U4U Innovation grant and the University of Utah Research Seed grants to facilitate the launch and the visualizing gender-based violence platform..