According to a new study by the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), female researchers are cited less often than their male colleagues.

Representatives to the Norwegian Parliament applaud the Research Council’s grant scheme to promote women in research, but will not guarantee allocations for the project.

The rectors of Norwegian universities and university colleges welcome the Research Council’s new initiative to promote women in research. 

We need to know more about the recruitment processes in the research sector. This is the message that came through loud and clear when the Research Council of Norway held a workshop on the factors that impede gender balance at the upper levels of research.

If we continue at the current pace, it will take 75 years before half of the senior academic positions are held by women. Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland believes the institutions have a duty to adopt action plans that speed up the progress.

Five of the 14 Centres for Research-based Innovation (SFI) in Norway do not have women on their boards.

“We are very pleased because we have worked systematically to promote gender equality,” says Eli Bergsvik, Rector of Bergen University College.

Last year the University of Tromsø was singled out as having the worst gender balance in the country. Director of personnel Håvard Bekkelund hardly remembers this. Because things are changing fast.

The rector at the University of Bergen will spend a further 2 million Norwegian crowns on equal opportunities work. This is how Bergen will become a leading university on gender equality.

Sure, the situation for women in science has improved. But a lot remains to be done, says Kari Melby, chair of the Committee for Mainstreaming – Women in Science.

A gender researcher in the Senate, an innovative gender equality adviser, new tactics and good timing. These factors were instrumental when the University of Oslo passed a new gender equality action plan.