Health Research Board Gender Policy

The HRB will work to achieve a greater gender balance throughout its research funding programmes and practices by:

•   Promoting gender equality within its own administration of research funding and within the research teams that it funds;

•   Fostering the integration of sex an/ or gender in research and innovation (R&I) content;

•   Assuming a greater national responsibility for promoting gender equality in health research.

Specific actions will be focused across a number of key areas.

Gender balance in decision-making

•   Require gender balance in HRB decision-making, in order to reach the international best practice target of 40% of the under-represented sex in all HRB panels5. Gender will also be considered when appointing the position of Panel Chair;

•   Require gender balance within the HRB peer-review process including in the drafting and the implementation of HRB funding calls, recognising, for example, the impact of career breaks and unconventional research career paths on productivity,considering any unconscious bias in peer-review proces

Gender balance in research teams

•   Include gender balance in the leadership of the research team among the ranking factors to prioritise proposals with the same scores at panel stage, in order to reinforce applicants’ engagement at proposal level;

•   Require commitment of successful applicants within grant contracts to aim, as far as possible, for gender balance at all levels of personnel assigned to the research, including at supervisory and managerial level;

•   Investigate targeted initiatives to support successful applicants in research areas with a gender imbalance, paying particular attention to senior-level academic positions;

•   Implement provisions for maternity and parental leave in accordance with the HRB Policy on the Payment of Social Benefits. 

•  Require all applicants to indicate whether a potential sex and/ or gender dimension may be present or could arise in the course of their proposed research:

o and, if so, outline how sex and/or gender analysis will be integrated in the design, implementation, evaluation, interpretation and dissemination of the results of the research proposal;

o if not, outline why it is not relevant to the research proposal. Strengthening expertise

Strengthening expertise

Strengthen expertise and set cleaner and clearer goals for the HRB by: 

• Monitoring and reporting on gender balance, to include:

o gender balance of HRB panels, and reporting on any goals not achieved with an analysis of how the situation cane be improved
o patterns of awards to better assess trends, to challenge potential sources of gender bias in thepeer-review process and to inform the development of targeted gender initiatives;

o consideration of sex and/or gender dimension in HRB funded research proposals where these have been identified as relevant variables; o publishing annual HRB gender statistics

• Providing guidance and training on gender balance, to include:

o training for those HRB staff involved in the drafting and the implementation of HRB funding calls,

including on the integration of sex and/or gender dimension within research;

o guidance for HRB peer-reviewers on panels;

o guidance for HRB peer-reviewers on evaluating a potential sex and/or gender dimension in research proposals;

o guidance for researchers on identifying and addressing the sex and/or gender dimension in the development of research proposals. 

Gender dimension in research content 

• Require all applicants to indicate whether a potential sex and/ or gender dimension may be present or could arise in the course of their proposed research:

o and, if so, outline how sex and/or gender analysis will be integrated in the design, implementation, evaluation, interpretation and dissemination of the results of the research proposal;

o if not, outline why it is not relevant to the research proposal. 

•  Collaborating with Irish representatives of national and international groups that are working to advance gender equality and integration of sex and/or gender analysis in research content.