Gender affects the awarding of research funding, according to research published in the scientific journal PNAS this week.

Psychology researchers Dr Romy van der Lee of Leiden university and professor Naomi Ellemers of Utrecht university were asked to carry out the research by the Netherlands organisation for scientific research NWO.

They found that women are still under-represented in top academic positions and one of the reasons could be the increasing importance of obtaining research funding, something at which women are often less successful than men.

The study reveals that women are less positively evaluated for their qualities as researcher than men and that the language used to assess the quality of applications tends to be that of the male gender stereotype, such as challenging and excellent.

The NWO says it will devote more attention to the gender awareness of reviewers in its methods and procedures.