NIH funding longevity by gender.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical research
• Academic careers
• Grant funding

Background:

• Women are underrepresented in academic positions despite achieving parity in biomedical science degrees.
• Women submit less than one-third of new grant applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and compose less than one-third of NIH research grantees.
• Despite comparable success rates in obtaining initial grants, women's long-term funding trajectories require examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender differences in NIH funding trajectories over time.
• To determine if women maintain funding at the same rate as men after receiving their first major research grants.
• To explore factors contributing to observed gender differences in funding longevity.

Main Methods:

• Survival analysis of NIH funding trajectories for 34,770 investigators.
• Examination of gender differences in grant application, review, and renewal outcomes.
• Adjusted survival models considering investigator characteristics and application behavior.

Main Results:

• A slight decrease in funding longevity was observed for women.
• Women individually held fewer grants, submitted fewer applications, and had lower success rates in grant renewals.
• Adjusted models indicated no gender differences in funding longevity when accounting for initial characteristics or subsequent application behavior.

Conclusions:

• The study contradicts the assumption of accelerated attrition for women in biomedical research funding.
• Observed longevity differences are influenced by both initial investigator characteristics and application behaviors.
• Findings suggest women's sustained NIH funding may be more robust than commonly perceived, highlighting a need to address underrepresentation in initial grants and lower application submission rates.