Opinion: The NIH needs to ensure that women are equally represented in grant funding decisions
For U.S. researchers, the room where it happens —”it” being decisions about funding — is National Institutes of Health study sections. These are the committees charged with reviewing applications for NIH grants and recommending which ones should be funded.
Despite decades of progress by women scientists, women are still underrepresented in study sections. As women who are physician-scientists funded by the NIH, each of us has had first-hand experiences of being the sole woman in the room.
