Senior women researchers have had a better year to date than men in National Health and Medical Research Council grants – but that is not saying much

NHMRC stats show women Chief Investigators have a funding rate of 14.4 per cent for competitive grants, compared to 7.9 per cent for men so far this year. The overall success rate is 10.6 per cent.

All up, the NHMRC has provided $95.8m for 51 competitive grant projects, from 480 applications.

This is before the big Discovery programme is announced, which may change things, but probably only around the edges. Last year women Chief Investigators had a 13 per cent success rate for all competitive grants ($310m).