Equal Opportunities in Research Funding

Objectives and achievements

Schiebinger and Schraudner (2011) describe the process of gendered innovations* as one that integrates gender analyses into all phases of basic and applied research, thus ensuring excellence and quality in the results. The german version of the website was made available in 2015: http://www.geschlecht-und-innovation.at/home/

The gendered innovations process supports excellence in both people and content in science, research, medicine and technology. The process is conducive to gender-responsible research and technology and aims to support the life of women and men globally.

In the past, policymakers, institutions and researchers have chosen three approaches in order to attain this objective:

  1. Fixing the numbers  – increasing the number of women in the fields of science, research, medicine and technology;
  2. Fixing the institutions – improving institutions by dismantling obstacles and changing structures;
  3. Fixing the knowledge – completing our knowledge by integrating gender analyses into basic and applied research.

Since its establishment in 2005, the FWF's Staff Unit for Gender Issues has pursued the following objectives:

  • to ensure the quality of data captured and to identify links in existing data;
  • to increase the visibility of women in science and research;
  • to enhance and expand career opportunities for women in science and research;
  • to increase the number of women among principal investigators and in the FWF's decision-making bodies.

The FWF attaches great importance to provide Equal Opportunities for women and men researchers. Therefore we publish the analysis concerning application and success rates annually and observe the development of these rates. In the course of the FWF self-evaluation these processes were analysed internally and internationally and the results were published. Checks and Balances are the backbone of a fair and objective decision process.

The sheet "FWF Monitoring of Equal Opportunities" visualizes the corresponding aspects within the FWF procedures on a yearly basis.

A survey (pdf, 219KB) of the last ten years shows certain achievements. If we examine the changes in FWF programmes and funding in recent years on the basis of the processes described above, we can state the following about the three points listed below:

  1. FIX the numbers
  2. FIX the institutions
  3. FIX the knowledge

 

* Schiebinger & Schraudner 2011(INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, Vol. 36 No. 2, June, 2011, 154–6)

Note: Not all citations are available in English. In such cases, the German Version of the text is provided.