Gender Equity 2025–26 Report Card

This report card focuses on the achievements made in financial year 2025–26 against the Gender Equity Strategy. NHMRC continues to work to progress all actions in the priority areas and achieve the Strategy’s objectives.

Key actions in 2025–26:

The Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics  and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research was embedded in the grant program so that applicants are now required to account for these important variables in their proposed research.

NHMRC grant program overall for women (CIA#) in 2025–26:
47%
Applications received
53%
Grants awarded
52%
Funding awarded

CAREER STAGE - YEARS POST-PHD

Number of grants (funded rate) for CIAs

Three pie charts showing grants and funded rates for lead Chief Investigators by career stage in 2025–26. For 0 to less than 10 years post-PhD: 88 women (11.1% funded), 55 men (7.5%) and 5 other (13.9%). For 10 to less than 20 years: 119 women (11.9%), 95 men (10.2%) and 1 other (4.2%). For 20 or more years: 75 women (13.8%), 116 men (12.6%) and 1 other (7.7%).A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Note: Funded CIAs with a PhD not complete or awarded are not shown. Figure description.

FUNDED RATE

Horizontal bar chart representing the funded rate (percentage) for women, men and other lead Chief Investigators in the NHMRC grant program for 2025–26. 13.3% women, 10.7% men, 6.8% other. A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Note: The funded rate is the percentage of applications that receive funding. Figure description.

SCHEMES^

A vertical bar chart representing the funded rate for women and men lead Chief Investigators and the proportion of grants awarded to women by scheme for 2025–26. A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Figure description.
^ This report includes grant opportunities for which outcomes were approved during the financial year.
* Includes multiple grant opportunities. Note: The ‘Other CIA’ category is not included in this graph.
# CIA – Chief Investigator A, first named lead researcher on an application.

The Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Awards promote and foster the career development of women researchers and are awarded annually to the highest-ranked woman recipient of a Leadership Category Investigator Grant in each of the four broad research areas.

Basic Science
Periconception mechanisms impacting fertility and pregnancy health

Public Health
A Life Course Approach to Early Detection and Interventions to Stop Pre-COPD

Professor Sherene Loi

Clinical Medicine and Science
Innovating in breast cancer immunology treatment and prevention

Professor Karen Canfell AC

Health Services
The elimination of cervical cancer

ALL CHIEF INVESTIGATORS

Infographic with text '50% all chief investigators on grants were women'.

Funded rate for all Chief Investigators

Horizontal bar chart showing funded rates for all Chief Investigators in the NHMRC grant program in 2025–26: 13.4% for women, 11.1% for men and 10.1% for other. A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Figure description.

STRUCTURAL PRIORITY FUNDING

In 2025–26, structural priority funding (SPF) was awarded to additional high-quality applications led by women and non-binary CIAs to address differences in funded rates compared to men CIAs in some schemes.

Funded rate by gender before and after SPF applied (Baseline vs Final)

Vertical bar chart representing the baseline (before structural priority funding) and final funded rates for women and men lead Chief Investigators in relevant schemes in 2025–26. A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Note: Data are only shown for schemes in which SPF for gender equity was applied. The 'Final' funded rate incorporates all structural priorities, not only gender. 'Baseline' is the funded rate prior to SPF. 'Other' category is not shown. Figure description.

IMPACT OF SPECIAL MEASURES ON INVESTIGATOR GRANT LEADERSHIP CATEGORY

In 2026 Investigator Grants, special measures under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 were applied with the objective to award equal numbers of grants to women and non-binary researchers as men and other researchers in the Leadership category overall. More information is available at Investigator Grants outcomes.

Horizontal bar chart showing the number of women and men by leadership category: L1, 23 women and 14 men; L2, 14 women and 14 men; L3, 16 women and 23 men. A link to the full figure description is provided below the image.

Figure description.

Data notes: Gender identifiers in NHMRC’s grants management system align with the ABS 2020 Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables. The Standard recommends that reporting categories be aggregated in case of low numbers to avoid disclosure of private information. NHMRC reports gender using the following categories: Woman, Man and Other. The Other category comprises applicants who selected a gender of ‘not stated’, ‘prefer not to answer’, ‘non-binary’ or ‘I use a different term’ or if the gender field was not completed.

Download the Gender Equity Report Card 2025-26.