Gender Ask Gap in Science

Securing research funding is critical for scientific progress and career advancement, yet a persistent gender gap in funding may shape who conducts research, and ultimately, the direction of science. We study whether part of this gap arises at the application stage through differences in how much funding men and women request. In pre-existing empirical work, we analyse nearly 10,000 grant applications submitted to two major European philanthropic science funders, linking detailed budget data to peer-review scores and bibliometric records. Controlling for idea quality, scientific subfield, publication history, citation counts, and other principal investigator characteristics, we find that female PIs request approximately 5% less funding per project than comparable male PIs. In this experiment, are testing a light-touch informational intervention that informs female applicants of the documented 5% ask gap. We examine whether this recalibration prompt increases requested amounts and narrows gender disparities in funding requests.