Practitioners’ perspectives: a funder’s experience of addressing gender balance in its portfolio of awards

It is widely acknowledged that there is an underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Science Foundation Ireland, the largest funder of STEM research in Ireland, has been developing initiatives to remove and mitigate any existing or perceived factors that may limit the participation of women in STEM careers. In this paper, we present a review of gender initiatives across our funding programmes since 2011 and highlight those that are supporting a stronger representation of women in STEM. Overall, we have seen an increase in female award holders from 21% in 2015, to 26% in 2017. In 2015, a gender initiative was introduced into SFI’s Starting Investigator Research Grant Programme, which led to a 22 percentage point increase in female award holders compared to the 2013 call, when no gender initiative was in place. Science Foundation Ireland will continue to monitor the impacts of these actions, and to innovate and contribute to international best practice.