More men than women receive funding when the Research Council of Norway grants money for outstanding research. Susanne Moen Stephansen has looked at how the attempts to bring more gender equality into these schemes have worked.

In November last year Tora Aasland promised to implement earmarking of temporary posts for women. Now the Efta Surveillance Authority (ESA) has put a stop to these plans.

A recent report from the Norwegian research institute NIFU STEP shows that men outnumber women within commercial and business-oriented research and that female researchers are less involved in international collaboration and peer review than their male colleagues.

The capital of western Norway came out on top when the Gender Equality Award for 2008 was presented jointly to the University of Bergen and the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (MHH).

Hierarchies and lack of management prevent women from climbing to the top in academia, says Curt Rice, the new Pro-Rector at the University of Tromsø. He calls for more management and different work methods at the university.

There is little difference in how Ghanaian girls and boys view science education and technology. In Norway, Sweden, Finland and England, on the other hand, the gender gap regarding what the pupils are interested in is huge.