Where Female Scientists Fall Behind

In a paper appearing in the current issue of Academic Medicine, a slew of science policy experts discuss "sex differences in application, success, and funding rates for NIH extramural programs," which they detected in 2010 when collating data for grants the agency had funded. Overall, the team says that "success and funding rates for men and women were not significantly different in most award programs," though for renewal grants "both application and funding rates were generally higher for men than for women." While women received larger R01 awards on average, "men had more R01 awards than women at all points in their careers," the authors write. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, "the NIH says it is concerned about such findings and is looking forward to more study of the matter."