By Despoina Mademtzoglou, project manager and Isabelle Spada, administrative coordinator
In May 2024, the Grants Office and the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion group hosted a seminar on "Gender, grant applications and success rates". The organizers and a panel of grant awardees shared data on grant applications and funded projects by male and female researchers, and they engaged on a round table discussion on the topic. The recording is available in the playlist of DEI. We invite you to the quiz below about some key figures and take-home messages.
1) Internationally, female and male researchers:
Submit equal numbers of grant applications in recent years
Receive equal funding when evaluation is blind
Differ in willingness to resubmit a rejected proposal
2) Female researchers have reported the following factor as having encouraged them to apply for grants:
Receive institutional support
Have a male partner in the proposal
Avoid career breaks
3) The panelists shared the following advice when a researcher applies for a grant:
Constantly explore new areas, favor disruptive over incremental innovation
Hold brainstorming sessions with other scientists, request feedback from peers
Focus on the idea, not the technology to support it
4) Which of the following has worked well for the panelists in applying for and getting grants?
Develop collaborations, without necessarily applying for collaborative grants together
Accept the rejection, use the criticism to get stronger applications, fight against internal censorship (e.g. disregard inhibitory terms like “excellence” in the grant’s name)
Reuse data and learn to delegate (Grants Office, team members...) to enhance time investment
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