‘We need diverse research environments’

Juleen Zierath

The suggestion that a focus on quality in research funding favours men over women may sound like a relic from the past. But data from Sweden, Denmark and the European Research Council (see Outlook, page 17, via link below) seems to indicate that there is some truth to it.

However, quality is by no means a particularly male thing, says Juleen Zierath, professor of clinical integrative psychology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. As one of only three women in Sweden to have taken home an ERC Advanced Grant, which go to well-established researchers, out of a total of 37 Swedish winners, she is part of the Swedish research elite, and holds a seat on the nominating committee for the Nobel Prize in medicine.