Large Gender Gap Exists in Early Career Grant Funding, Study Finds

Women received significantly less financial support from biomedical research institutions than men early in their careers, according to Sex Differences in Institutional Support for Junior Biomedical Researchers – a study by Health Resources in Action’s Medical Foundation published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In the study, researchers found that that employers gave newly hired men researchers a median of $889,000 to purchase equipment and other laboratory costs, compared to $350,000 for women scientists. For individuals with Ph.D., the gap grew even larger with $936,000 in funding for men versus $348,000 for women. Forty percent of men received over $1 million to launch their careers, compared to only 12 percent of women. In addition to this large gap in funding, women are underrepresented at the top levels of biomedical research comprising only 30 percent of funded investigators. Read the study…