It is an inspiring time for health and medical research in Australia as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) sets the standard for achieving gender equity through its largest grant scheme, Investigator Grants.
As the Australian Government’s leading health and medical research funding agency, NHMRC is committed to addressing gender equity and building a diverse workforce that encourages retention and participation in health and medical research careers at all levels of seniority.
I am determined to continue the critical work initiated by my predecessor, Professor Anne Kelso AO, to improve gender equity and support a health and medical research workforce that reflects the equity values NHMRC upholds.
Since 2012, NHMRC has taken steps to improve gender equity across its grant program. I have witnessed these improvements firsthand, both as the former Chair of NHMRC’s Research Committee and as a member of the Council of NHMRC.
These interventions over the last decade have helped, but improvements in workforce equity have been slow - we continue to receive low numbers of applications from senior women researchers; most notably within our largest funding scheme, the Investigator Grant scheme. The gender imbalance in total awarded funding has also been striking in this scheme and a bold move was needed.
Announced in 2022, following an extensive national consultation process led by Professor Kelso, NHMRC has introduced new special measures under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to address the systemic disadvantage faced by women and non-binary researchers. The goal is to reduce gender inequities in funding outcomes in the Investigator Grant scheme, beginning with the 2023 round announced today.
This new approach seeks to address gender disparities by maintaining a strong pipeline of women in the early and mid-career stages, ensuring that women continue to be funded at later stages in their careers, and making it appealing to recruit, retain and support women so that they achieve the level of success that makes future interventions unnecessary.
Application of these measures to the 2023 Investigator Grant scheme has led to near equal numbers of grants being awarded to women and men at the Leadership level and equal funded rates by gender at the Emerging Leadership level. Overall, it has led to women receiving $8 million more in funding than men (compared to receiving on average $73 million less each year in the first 4 years of the scheme).
All researchers supported through the scheme have been assessed as excellent and we look forward to seeing the impacts of their research improving health in our communities in the years to come.
With the support of other leaders in research institutions, government, industry, and business, as well as the Australian community, I believe we can achieve gender equity in Australia’s health and medical research workforce – a workforce that takes full advantage of the range of scientific talent needed to build a healthy Australia.