The move to competency-based education in the United States is gaining momentum, but there are still many institutions, particularly at the undergraduate level, that are hesitant to move away from traditional courses. Recent changes proposed for the testing and admission process for American medical schools have now focused attention on the premedical curriculum and its rigid course requirements in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Some universities are beginning to explore the use of competency-based education to condense these course requirements, thereby creating space in the curriculum for more behavioral science and liberal arts classes. In 2009 the Association of American Medical Colleges partnered with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and issued a report, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (SFFP, available at www.hhmi.org/grants/pdf/08-209_AAMC-HHMI_report.pdf). The SFFP report called for the substitution of competencies in place of rigid course requirements for admission to medical school, and it described eight broad competencies that were fundamental background for beginning specialized medical education. Some of the intent of the SFFP report was to open the door for development of creative interdisciplinary curricula and for collaboration between disciplines. To support this objective, HHMI created the NEXUS project (www.hhmi.org/grants/office/nexus). For example, as part of NEXUS, an interdisciplinary team from the University of Maryland developed a physics course for life science students that emphasizes basic scientific competencies and uses biological examples to teach physical principles. In the medical and academic institutions of the University of Texas System, a pilot project called Transformation in Medical Education (TIME) aims to shorten the time between high school and completion of the medical degree by using competencies to eliminate redundancies in the undergraduate and medical curricula. To accomplish this, we first created sets of competencies from those required for physician graduates. Now we are mapping competencies onto existing courses and using the map looking for opportunities to combine traditional courses, such as those in physics and physiology. This talk will show how this work has progressed and will discuss some of the obstacles to implementation.