Region Skåne research funding remains heavily skewed towards men, even as women have become the majority among doctoral researchers. Around two thirds of the research funding distributed by Region Skåne in recent years has gone to men, according to an analysis by Swedish public broadcaster SVT. The figures expose a persistent gap between gender balance at the beginning of an academic career and access to resources later on.
Women currently account for 59% of doctoral researchers in Skåne, while they represented 49% of those who completed a doctorate in the latest available year. Yet this near parity does not extend to the allocation of research money.
Region Skåne research funding still favours senior male researchers
According to Region Skåne, much of the imbalance can be explained by the structure of academic careers. A large share of research funding goes to projects led by senior researchers, and those positions are still disproportionately held by men.
Experienced research leaders have had more time to build teams, infrastructure and institutional support around their work. These resources can strengthen subsequent grant applications and make established researchers better positioned to manage financially demanding projects.
Jesper Petersson, Research Director at Region Skåne, told SVT that the issue had already been discussed in the 1990s.
“We talked about this already in the 1990s, and now, almost 30 years later, one might wonder whether we have really come any further,” he said.
The regional authority distributes several forms of research support. Its official funding overview explains that research conducted within its healthcare system is financed through a combination of regional funds, national and international programmes, foundations and donations. Regional research and development funding can cover research projects, protected research time and infrastructure.
This makes access to funding relevant not only to whether a project can proceed, but also to how much time researchers can devote to their work and what resources they can build around it.
More women enter research than control its resources
The contrast is clearest at the start of the academic career. Women already form a clear majority in doctoral education, while the number of men and women completing doctorates is almost equal.
The challenge for Region Skåne is therefore not simply attracting women into research, but ensuring that they remain in the system and can progress towards positions where they lead projects and control larger research budgets.
Åsa Ingvar, a dermatologist and researcher in Lund, told SVT that securing protected research time can be difficult for clinicians because hospital duties frequently interrupt academic work. She said support from her manager, including the possibility of working from home, had been important in allowing her to continue her research.
She also pointed to the administrative burden faced by researchers.
“There is far too much bureaucracy. It has gone too far and takes too much time,” she said.
The issue is particularly relevant in clinical research, where academic careers must often develop alongside responsibilities for patients. Region Skåne itself says that much of the research it supports is carried out within healthcare and in cooperation with universities, higher education institutions and other partners. The region describes its research system as spanning clinical studies and other projects intended to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
The latest grants show signs of a shift
Region Skåne says the distribution has begun to change. According to Petersson, the share of funding going to women has increased considerably over the past two years, although it remains below the level the region considers appropriate.
Because research careers and major projects develop over long periods, changes in new funding decisions will take time to alter the accumulated figures.
The numbers from Skåne therefore illustrate a broader question about equality in academia. Numerical parity among younger researchers does not automatically translate into equal access to research time, infrastructure, senior positions and financial resources.
The next test for Region Skåne will be whether the shift it says is visible in recent funding rounds becomes strong enough to change the overall distribution, and whether the current generation of female doctoral researchers is able to progress into the senior positions that still command most of the region’s research funding.
