Applications submitted and grants awarded to men and women in nationwide biomedical competitive research, in 2006, in Spain

Abstract

Background: According to European reports, women participate in research less than men, especially in positions of responsibility. This kind of analysis has not been carried out in Spain in the field of biomedical research. This study describes participation of men and women as grant applicants in two different calls for research funding, held in Spain in 2006. Methods: Data collected from grant applicants and from grantees, for two different competitive grant researches areas: human resources and CIBER (Spanish acronym for Biomedical Research Network Centres) have been described by sex. Results: The human resources call shows that the number of applications submitted by women is higher (67.8% vs 32.2%), but the percentage of awards are similar (20.3% vs 22.7%), OR = 1.15 (95% CI: 0.82 to 1.62), with no statistical differences, although there are more men in the upper categories (superior technical experts (OR = 1.19 (0.58 to 2.45)) post-doctoral (OR = 1.36 (0.65 to 2.86)) and research personnel (OR = 1.48 (0.67 to 3.25)). With the OBER call (senior researchers) there is a clear difference in the number of applicants (women 19.6%, men 80.4%) but the number of awardees is similar (40.3% vs 43.1%) OR = 0.89 (0.65 to 1.34). Conclusions: Although there are no statistical differences between women and men, with respect the awards obtained, there is a different pattern to the type of grant application, with fewer women in the more senior call.