| Issue 62 (WAIS 2) Contents
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Workshop 2C
Revaluing Women - Competition
and Funding
Rosemary
Sutton
Session Chair
This workshop raised many issues and questions relating to the competition for funding for scientific research. We started out with these questions in mind. How are women faring in obtaining project funds? What are the statistics on gender and funding success? Is there bias in the decision-making on grants? How do you succeed in getting grants? For women this advice should extend to getting into the funding race, getting back in the race and strategies for late starts in the race. The difficulties in raising money for science centres, and for science communication were also raised. Women are also particularly concerned with juggling the time and effort that is needed for getting competitive grants with that needed for publishing; administrative and teaching commitments as well other responsibilities such caring for their families.
Sue Rowley from the Australian Research Council (ARC) outlined the types of programs the ARC administered as a national competitive funding agency. The ARC funds research to benefit Australia and allocates grants according to national research priorities determined by the Federal Government. Sue presented gender disaggregated data from the 2002 funding round. While the data did not look so good for women, they have improved over past years.
The numbers of women applying for grants are low and they are less successful. Women submitted 22.4 % of Discovery Grants in 2002 (up from 16.9% in 1999) and received 18.7% of the grants awarded. 23.6% of women who applied were successful compared with 29.6% men. Some of the gender disparity can be explained by the fact that only 10% of female applicants compared with 24% of males were Professors; senior rank is a major factor in grant success, with 40% of grant applications from Professors being successful compared to a 26% overall success rate. Curiously, male applicants show a sharp peak in their age distribution, whereas females are applying over a greater spread of ages.
The success rates of these peer-assessed grants vary according to discipline, so that women were more likely to be successful in social sciences and engineering than in biology and biotechnology.
There has been a big increase in women going for Early Career Researchers (defined as within 5 years of Ph.D.) funding over the past 3 years. Women make up 37% of applicants, 32% of successful applicants. Again there are differences in disciplines, and women show a flatter age profile than their male counterparts. On the positive side, teams generally are more successful in securing grants than individuals and in the new ARC Linkage Grant program which supports partnerships with industry, women are just as successful as men.
Margaret Sheil from the University of Woollongong spoke about the key aspects for competitive grant success, from her considerable experience in grant selection for the ARC. She emphasised that the application must show the significance or benefit of the research to Australia, in plain English! Track record is very important and must be appropriate for the applicant’s career stage. Breaks or other career variations should be shown positively to ensure that the selection committee allows for them.
Heather Bruce from Food Science Australia spoke about the very different approaches needed for securing Research and Development Corporation funding and commercial sponsorship for research. Her main message was that for this sort of sponsorship academic track record is NOT important - delivering what you promise and project management IS important. The approach is more about building relationships, understandings and collaborations.
Heather spoke of the good, the bad and the ugly aspects with business sponsorship of research. Her advice extended to making sure the research contract was clear, including intellectual property considerations, that women should take pride in what they have to offer and that they should use imagination and market themselves in all approaches.
From the workshop and the discussion of the issues at the plenary session, it was recommended that a project be initiated to research the status of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in Australia. The project should compile and analyse data on women’s’ participation and success rates nationally in competition for jobs in STEM employment in academia and the public sector science agencies; and for publicly-funded grants and awards. The project should analyse past and existing affirmative action programs or initiatives in Universities and public sector science agencies, in the context of initiatives overseas.
We recommend that funding for this project is made available through the Federal Government, that the outcomes of the project are reported to the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council and that consideration be given to ongoing Women in STEM unit.
The plenary session also discussed a new model for competitive grants, based as in the European Consortium Grants, in which the first selection round to identify worthwhile projects is performed without the applicants or their organizations being identified. The applicants and their track records are then identified for second round which assesses the likelihood of success.
WORKSHOP 2C PANELLISTS
Dr Rosemary Sutton
Rosemary Sutton is the previous National Convenor for
Women in Science Enquiry Network (WISENET). She is a
molecular biologist at the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia
in Sydney undertaking research on treatment of neuroblastoma
and leukaemia. She has previously worked at CSIRO
Livestock Industries and has experience with research funding
from NH&MRC, ARC, Wool R&D and commercial
sources.
Prof Sue Rowley
Sue Rowley is an Executive Director at the Australian Research
Council. Established as an independent body under The
Australian Research Council Act 2001, the ARC’s mission is to
advance Australia’s capacity to undertake quality research that
brings economic, social and cultural benefit to the Australian
community. Reporting to the Minister for Education, Science
and Training, the ARC is the primary source of advice to the
Government on investment in the national research effort.
Prof Margaret Sheil
Margaret Sheil is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research),
University of Wollongong (UoW). In 2000, Margaret
became Australia’s first female Professor of Chemistry, and
became Dean of Science at UoW in January 2001. She has
also held positions within the Department of Chemistry at
UoW and as a Research Fellow at the Australian National
University and the University of Utah, USA.
Dr Heather Bruce
Heather Bruce is currently Leader of the Meat Quality Section in Food Science Australia, a joint venture between CSIRO and the Australian Food Industry Science Centre. Heather received her PhD in 1995 from the University of Alberta and her MSc and BSc from the University of Guelph. Heather actively seeks funding from the meat industry through consultancies and research projects, and negotiates with industry R & D organisations as well as private companies.