Sex and Gender Analysis Policies of Major Granting Agencies

A variety of international, national, and private granting organizations require sex and gender analysis. Grantees may be required to address how their projects will promote:

• • Equal representation of men and women in employment, decision-making, and as clinical research subjects (fixing the numbers) 
• • Removing institutional barriers to gender equality (fixing the institutions)
• • Employing sex and gender analysis as a resource to create new knowledge and technologies.
•  

  Organization	Policy to:	Policy to:	Policy to:	Policy to Integrate Gender Analysis into Research
  European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation	Yes	Yes	Yes	The European Commission supports "engendering research"; i.e., "questioning systematically whether, and in what sense, sex and gender are relevant in the objectives and in the methodology of projects"(European Commission, 2003). The Commission proposes ensuring "the effective promotion of gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation content" under Horizon 2020 (European Commission, 2011).
  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 […] Projects that do not adequately address these expectations will require further thought, guidance, and revision in order to obtain or retain funding" (Gates Foundation, 2008).
  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).
  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).
  German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)	Yes	Yes	Yes	"A successful strategy for gender equality delivers significant added value. Gender equality enhances research quality because it enlarges the talent pool, promotes a diversity of research perspectives, and eliminates blind spots regarding the significance of gender in research contents and methods. Thus the inclusion of relevant gender and diversity aspects is a key ingredient of high-quality research" (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 2008)
  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)
  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	"Roles and responsibilities of NIH staff and the extramural community have been updated with regard to the implementation of the NIH policy on the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research" (NIH, 2001).
  U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)	Yes	Yes	No	No policy at this level currently.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). (2012). Gender, Sex and Health Research Guide: A Tool for CIHR Applicants. Enacted December 2010.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaf. (2008). The DFG's Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality. Enacted August 2008.

European Commission. (2011). Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council: Establishing Horizon 2020—The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, 2014-2020, Article 15. Brussels: European Commission.

European Commission. (2003). European Commission Deputy-General for Research, Technology, and Development Vademecum. Enacted March 2003.

Gates Foundation. (2008). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Gender Impact Strategy. Enacted June 2008.

Gobierno de España Ministerio de la Presidencia (Trans. Sánchez de Madariaga, I.) (2011). Disposiciones Generales. Boletín Oficial del Estado, 131 (1), 54387-54455.

NIH. (2001). Amendment to NIH Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research. Enacted October 2001.

Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft, (2010). Gender-Kriterien in der Forschungsförderung: Basisprogramm macht den Anfang

Research Council of Norway. (2010). General Application Requirements—The Research Council of Norway. September 2010.

WHO. (2002). WHO Gender Policy. Enacted May 2002.