The investigation of gender-specific biases in the decision-making processes of research funding and in scientific careers is at the centre of the Horizon 2020 project GRANteD. On 19 and 20 October 2023, the second stakeholder conference took place in Vienna under the direction of Helene Schiffbänker and Michael Ploder from the POLICIES Institute. Initial results were presented to the public and their significance for various stakeholders in the research system was discussed.
The role of research funding organisations
5 research funding organisations (RFOs) were examined closely. The result: RFOs play a key role in mitigating gender bias in the allocation of research grants and generally contribute to a more equal and fair scientific ecosystem. These policies are embedded in a broader policy context of each research funding organisation, and are related to national research intensity and the overall societal emphasis on gender equality in each country.
Research careers and grant application behaviour
The impact of gender-specific inequalities on research careers and application behaviour was also investigated. When analysing research careers in science using a large dataset of Swedish researchers, GRANteD was able to show that in this case there are no gender-specific differences in the time to professorship when scientific merit and previous achievements are taken into account. In contrast to the Swedish results, however, the analysis of the Dutch data on researchers' careers showed that women are more likely to end their scientific careers earlier and more frequently than their male colleagues.
Further information on the results
- Context, Policies and Practices (Helene Schiffbänker, Liisa Husu)
- Applications, Grants and Research Careers (Florian Holzinger, Peter van den Besselaar)
- GRANteD