Gender inequality in applying research project and funding

Abstract

Gender equality in scientific research has gradually attracted attention from many countries. However, the possible interaction effect of gender on research funding has not been fully disclosed. This study conducts an empirical study to examine the possible influences of gender on research funding and its interaction effect with applicants’ social influences, including their external cumulative advantages (Matthew effect) and internal cognition (halo effect). In total, 1465 research projects from 2015 to 2021 are analysed to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that there is no gender inequality in the association between the Matthew effect and future research funding. However, the halo effect is easily affected by gender. For male scientists, higher institutional reputation and past research performance lead to higher future research funding. However, female scientists have no such benefits. According to the findings, this study suggests that female scientists should give priority to accumulating their own external resource advantages and participate in academic activities more frequently to activate women’s participation in scientific research and academia.