Sex and Gender Analysis Policies of Major Granting Agencies

Austrian Research Promotion Agency

Yes

Yes

Yes

FFG considers that attention to gender aspects contributes to quality assurance in research... Potential for innovation increases when gender aspects are adequately included in the design. FFG thus applies relevant gender criteria when evaluating applications for funding (ÖFFG, 2010).

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Yes

Yes

Yes

"CIHR has implemented a requirement that all grant applicants respond to mandatory questions about whether their research designs include gender and sex [...] The purpose of this tool is to give health researchers a framework for thinking through how gender and/or sex might be integrated into their research designs" (CIHR, 2012).

European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Since 2003, the European Commission has supported "questioning systematically whether, and in what sense, sex and gender are relevant in the objectives and in the methodology of projects"(European Commission, 2003). These policies have been reaffirmed and expanded in Horizon 2020, the Commission’s current funding framework. The Commission states, “Integrating gender/sex analysis in research and innovation (R&I) content helps improve the scientific quality and societal relevance of the produced knowledge, technology and/or innovation.” In the proposal template, under “concept and approach,” applicants are asked “Where relevant, describe how sex and/or gender analysis is taken into account in the project’s content” (European Commission, 2011, 2013, 2014).

French Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

Yes

Yes

Initiatives

"Since 2012, CNRS has incorporated gender into its Mission for Interdisciplinary programs. The Gender Challenge Program (Défi Genre) funds innovative research projects that integrate gender into research in, e.g., environment, health, cognition, and technology. CNRS also supports the development of gender research though other initiatives; however, it does yet not require that all applicants for funding consider sex and gender in their research design.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Agricultural Development Grants

Yes

Yes

Yes

"[…] representation by sex alone does not ensure that women's or men's priorities will be taken into account. We are also willing to provide the needed support, tools and resources to appropriately inform, shape, train, and support the inclusion of gender in our work (Gates Foundation, 2008). The Gates Foundation does not support grant proposals for agricultural development that do not account for gender differences and do not consider how agricultural initiatives may benefit or hinder women or men (Gates Foundation, 2013).

German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

Yes

Yes

No

Irish Research Council

Yes

Yes

Yes

Sex-Gender Dimension: “The Council funds excellent research and excellent research fully considers the potential biological sex and social gender elements of the research content to maximise the impact and societal benefit of research. Not including the sex-gender dimension into the methodology, content and impact assessment of research can lead to poor research and missed opportunities. In order ‘that any assumptions made or issues addressed are based on the best available evidence and information’, the sex-gender dimension has to be fully considered.”

The Irish Research Council 2013-2020 Gender Strategy & Action Plan:

• 1. requires all applicants to indicate whether there is a sex and/or gender dimension to their research, and, if so, to outline how sex/gender analysis will be integrated in the design, implementation, evaluation, interpretation and dissemination of the results.
• 2. facilitates researchers to correctly identify and recognise a potential gender dimension in their proposed research through the provision of reference materials and training sessions.
• 3. provides guidance and training for Irish-based researchers in this area.
• 4. provides guidance and training for Council peer-review assessors for evaluation in this area.
• 5. reviews and monitors funded proposals (Irish Research Council, 2015).

Research Council of Norway (Norges forskningsråd)

Yes

Yes

Yes

"The Research Council views it as essential that gender perspectives are given adequate consideration in research projects where this is relevant. Good research must take into account biological and social differences between women and men, and the gender dimension should be one of the main pillars of the development of new knowledge. In research projects this dimension may be manifested through the research questions addressed, the theoretical approaches chosen, the methodology applied, and in the efforts to assess whether the research results will have different implications for women and men" (Research Council of Norway, 2010). "The Research Council will strengthen the knowledge base on gender perspectives for use in research and innovation policy" and "assess the relevance of gender perspectives in all application assessment" (Research Council of Norway, 2014).

Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación)

Yes

Yes

Yes

"The Spanish Innovation Strategy, as well as the National Plan for Research and Technological Development, will promote gender as a category of analysis so that its relevance is considered in all aspects of the process: in defining priorities of scientific and technological research, in defining research problems, and in theoretical and explanatory frameworks, methods, collection and interpretation of data, and findings" (Gobierno de España Ministerio de la Presidencia, 2011).

U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Yes

Yes

Yes

The US National Institutes of Health will gradually roll out policies beginning October, 2014, requiring that female and male cells and animals are used in pre-clinical studies. See the article in Nature by Janine Clayton and Francis Collins. Specifically, NIH will:

• 1. “require applicants to report their plans for the balance of male and female cells and animals in preclinical studies.”
• 2. develop and deliver training on experimental design and analysis for NIH staff, trainees, and grantees.
• 3. work with grant reviewers to enforce requirements for applicants.
• 4. encourage publishers to promote rigorous reporting of sex and gender analyses.
• 5. ORWH will continue to work with the US Food and Drug Administration on the Specialized Centers of Research on Sex Differences, which support interdisciplinary collaborations on sex and gender influences in health (Nature 2014).

NIH offers supplemental funding to explore the effects of sex in preclinical and clinical studies. Sept 2014, NIH made available $10.1 million as a catalyst for considering sex as a fundamental variable in research (PA-15-034).

U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)

Yes

Yes

No

No policy at this level currently.

World Health Organization (WHO)

Yes

Yes

Yes

"[…] in line with its long-standing concern with health equity WHO will, as a matter of policy and good public health practice, integrate gender considerations in all facets of its work. It will be the Organization's policy to ensure that all research, policies, programmes, projects, and initiatives with WHO involvement address gender issues" (WHO, 2002).