Report Card FAQ

The goal of the report card is evaluate institutions’ commitment to promoting gender equality and to recognize those that exhibit exceptional gender equality practices. The goal of the report card is to encourage institutions to promote gender equality in science, medicine and engineering and to create programs to make it possible.

The idea was generated from the Working Group of NYSCF’s Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering (IWISE). It was one of the seven actionable strategies the Working Group recommended for promoting gender equality in science following the inaugural IWISE meeting in February 2014. The conclusions and strategies from this meeting were published in March 2015 in Cell Stem Cell.

Yes, you can read the paper here. We encourage you to share it widely with your colleagues.

The IWISE Working Group is made of a diverse coalition of international scientists, who span a variety of careers stages as well as leaders, politicians, journal editors, biomedical research funders and others who are committed to advocating for gender equality in science.

Over the course of 4 years, we collected 1200+ report cards from 500+ institutions in 38 countries. An analysis of the data collected from the Report Card appears in the 2019 Cell Stem Cell paper “Institutional Report Cards for Gender Equality: Lessons Learned from Benchmarking Efforts for Women in STEM.” To read more about the initiative, read our press release, and see other press coverage on the study, please visit this page.

Yes. All applicants must complete the report card as part of their applications to NYSCF’s award programs. Applications without completed report cards will be considered incomplete.

The report card should be completed by, or on behalf of, your department chair.

No. We are currently in the pilot phase of the report card, and during this phase the data reported by your department chair will not affect your grant application. The only way that the report card will affect your application is if it is not completed.

No. We are currently in the pilot phase of the report card, and during this phase the data reported by your department chair will not affect your grant application.