Equal funding of innovations – VINNOVA (SE)
The project VINNOVA addresses the unequal funding of research. Therefore, it works with three main areas linked to the questions of who, how and what. The ‘who’ dimension includes the work around who is being financed. The focus is on the project team and the gender composition, such as how many women and men are project leaders or the time and resources allocated to different positions and tasks in the project from a gender perspective. All projects must have an action plan for gender equality. The ‘what’ dimension – which is the last stage in the development at the agency – relates to the aims and the methodology of the project, with the aim of a gender perspective being incorporated, if relevant. The applicant has to answer whether their project includes a gender dimension or not and has to explain their choice.
The ‘how’ dimension is comprised of two parts: The first is that the applications are set up in a way as to offer a good basis for assessing the gender aspects, while the second is that the review committee has an equal representation, is trained in gender bias and has the competence to assess how gender is relevant to the subject area of the project. VINNOVA has a support function for all programme managers before launching a call: In a meeting, the relevant gender aspects that the programme manager has to consider are discussed and the manager is provided with support.
