Fair projects - bad data? Evaluating the gender balance in science projects

Abstract

Researchers are more and more frequently required to report the gender balance of their teams in order to receive funding for their research projects. In Europe for instance, Horizon 2020 guidelines determine that applications with a balanced, 50/50 representation of women and men will be given preference, and each project must at least justify the composition of their teams and leadership positions. In scientific fields where women are still a minority, like robotics or artificial intelligence, or many STEMM fields in general, this approach has left the applicants with the issue of how to justify the ratio of women on their teams. For individual projects and project leaders, realistic objectives are required that take into account specific framework conditions in different scientific fields. This paper examines approaches to measure the disciplinary background and career development of women and men in science by assessing a range of available data sources. It provides insights on how to derive figures allowing science projects to evaluate their gender ratios against a possible underrepresen-tation of women.