{"id":5396,"date":"2026-03-30T02:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/australia-is-finally-moving-towards-equality-in-health-research-times-higher-education\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T02:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:33:49","slug":"australia-is-finally-moving-towards-equality-in-health-research-times-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/australia-is-finally-moving-towards-equality-in-health-research-times-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia is finally moving towards equality in health research – Times Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Earlier this month, an Australian-government commissioned report warned that the country\u2019s R&D sector needs bold and urgent reform at a time when public investment has fallen to just 1.69 per cent<\/a> of GDP, less than two-thirds of the OECD average of 2.7.
On the surface, the Ambitious Australia: Strategic Examination of Research and Development<\/em> final report<\/a> reveals a fragmented, underfunded and unsustainable system. It outlines a proposed roadmap to counter a 19 per cent decline in competitive grant funding over the past 12 years, as well as rising indirect research costs to 20 cents per dollar\u00a0and an urgent need to strengthen the research workforce in priority areas.\u00a0
All these are worthy and not unexpected recommendations. But when it comes to the causes of Australia\u2019s negative R&D trajectory, what the report fails to include is just as significant as what it includes.
Look closely \u2013 you really have to look closely \u2013 and you will see that across the report\u2019s entire 126 pages, the word \u201cwomen\u201d is mentioned only once (or twice if you count the figure legend). How is it possible in 2026 for such an important government report to fail to advocate for more women to be recruited as both conductors and subjects of medical research?
This omission reflects (and reinforces) the woeful current state of gender equality in Australia\u2019s R&D space. Although\u00a0women made up 37 per cent of Australian university STEM enrolments<\/a> in 2024, they represent only 15 per cent of Australia\u2019s STEM workforce<\/a> and less than 20 per cent of STEM leaders.<\/p>\n

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These statistics are not accidental. They are the result of biased funding models and inadequate retention and promotion processes. And they directly impact the health of Australian women, who experience distinct challenges and disparities compared with men.
For instance, in a 2024 Australian government survey<\/a>, two in three women reported experiencing bias or discrimination in healthcare, particularly diagnosis and treatment. The survey found that women\u2019s symptoms were often dismissed as \u201cstress\u201d, \u201chormones\u201d or \u201cjust menopausal\u201d, leading to late diagnoses and insufficient treatment.
A long as we have fewer women in positions of influence in medical research, conditions that disproportionately affect women will remain underfunded and under-researched. The likelihood will remain low of Australia developing better treatments for female-specific conditions such as ovarian cancer, endometriosis and menopause-related health changes \u2013 even though the impact of these on the health budget, as well as on women\u2019s health, is very significant.
In addition, conditions that disproportionately affect women, such as autoimmune diseases and chronic pain, will remain underfunded \u2013 or, as with heart disease, one of the leading causes of death in Australian women, much of the research underpinning diagnosis and treatment will continue to be conducted primarily in men<\/a>.
All this has a trickle-down effect. Medicine becomes distorted in the way it sees women\u2019s health issues or women as patients \u2013 which, in turn, must influence community values. For instance, only 40 per cent of respondents to a survey conducted for Research Australia\u2019s Women\u2019s Health Research Roadmap<\/a>, published last November, agreed that research is driven by women\u2019s lived experiences.<\/p>\n

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There are, however, encouraging signs of change.
On 3 March, Research Australia \u2013 the peak body representing the entire health and medical research pipeline \u2013 submitted its pre-budget 2026-27 submission<\/a> calling for equitable funding to tackle gender inequity in health research, greater female representation across the medical research workforce \u2013 from early and mid-career researchers through to senior leadership \u2013 and full implementation of the roadmap<\/a>.
That document advocates for coordinated, long-term investment in research systems, alongside targeted initiatives such as mentorship, flexible work support and dedicated funding streams to tackle the fragmented, short-term funding systems that disproportionately disadvantage women \u2013 leading to approximately A$300 million more in funding being awarded<\/a> to men between 2019 and 2021 by the National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia\u2019s largest biomedical funding body.
The NHMRC itself is also moving in the right direction. Last year it co-authored a document<\/a> with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing aimed at promoting the consideration of \u201csex, gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation in health and medical research\u201d. That document\u2019s provisions have been embedded since 1 January in NHMRC and Medical Research Future Fund grant applications.
This raises hopes that longstanding evidence gaps will be closed and that inclusive, accurate consideration of sex, gender and diversity will be embedded across all stages of research, in partnership with under-represented communities and people with lived experience. Together with Research Australia\u2019s pre-budget submission, which rightly links workforce equity to research outcomes, this represents a meaningful step toward systemic reform.
When more women lead research teams, clinical trials and medical schools, the questions change. The outcomes that are measured change. The patients who are prioritised change. And, ultimately, the health of an entire population improves.
Jessica Borger<\/strong><\/a> is associate professor in the School of Translational Medicine at <\/strong>Monash University<\/a> and a member of the Monash Women\u2019s Health Alliance.<\/strong>
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Practical insights from and foracademics and university staffEverything you need for each stepof your study abroad journeyEarlier this month, an Australian-government commissioned report warned that the country\u2019s R&D sector needs bold and urgent reform at a time when public investment has fallen to just 1.69 per cent of GDP, less than two-thirds of the OECD […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}