Sex-stratified analysis requirements

Funder-level rules can embed sex and gender as substantive scientific variables at every stage of the research process, from application through peer review to reporting. In clinical trials this means stratification by sex and gender is pre-specified at the design stage, with sample size powered to detect sex-disaggregated effects – not assigned to post-hoc subgroup analysis where statistical power is rarely sufficient and the evidence base for women predictably erodes.

Application-stage inclusion has risen sharply across funders globally, but methodological integration in the funded research that follows lags well behind. Without compliance verification at the reporting stage, no funder can say whether the rule is changing the science or just the application paperwork, and policymakers cannot tell either. A shared Nordic standard for compliance reporting at end of grant, the substantive measure of whether the rule does its work, would put the Nordics ahead of CIHR, NIH, and NHMRC on the question that matters next: not whether sex and gender were named, but whether the evidence holds for women. The five research council methodology and ethics leads, coordinated through NordForsk’s existing gender dimension working group, are positioned to take it forward.