Gender Balance Initiatives in Research Funding: Barriers and Possible Measures to Increase the Share of Women within Natural Science and Technology

From a European perspective, discussions of the role of research funding institutions in addressing the gender challenge have gained ground in recent years. The argument has been that the European and national research councils and funding institutions can put pressure on the universities from the outside; thereby assisting in pushing the universities to give their equality work higher priority and achieve results. Based on desk research, this research memorandum presents six promising practices and short summaries of existing experiences regarding what works in addressing the gender gap in research funding. While the identified gender balancing initiatives and measures stem from numerous national contexts, each of them are characterised by focusing mainly on one specific part of the grant allocation process – whether it be early in the process, where measures such as certification of applicants and/or earmarked funds are a possibility, or while applicants and projects are being assessed, or in the post-award phase, where measures to ensure public accountability for funding schemes and counteracting the motherhood penalty are distinct possibilities.