NOK 413 million
paid out in 2018–2021
Total payments to projects included in the Research Council's mapping.
Research and funding
What is being researched, which projects receive support, and what do the funding figures show?
International research statistics
Who participates in health research?
Women may be well represented in one group of studies but underrepresented in another. The figures below come from different international research datasets. They are not Norwegian statistics or results from a single study.
NIH-supported clinical research, 2025
57.8 %Share of all registered participants
57.8% of 11,048,927 participants were recorded as women. Sex was unknown or not reported for 7.0%.
NIH (2026), 2025 participant report – original sourceCardiovascular clinical trials, 2018–2024
38.5 %Share of all participants across the trials
716,569 women among 1,859,736 participants in 1,593 published clinical trials.
Bley et al. (2025) – original sourceTrials of ischaemic heart disease, 2018–2024
24 %Median percentage per trial
The median proportion of women per trial was 24.0%. This is not the proportion of all participants across this subgroup combined.
Bley et al. (2025) – original sourceWhy can we not compare the percentages directly?
The NIH figure covers all NIH-supported clinical research in 2025 at research sites both inside and outside the United States. The cardiovascular figure concerns participants in selected published trials from 2018 to 2024. By contrast, 24 percent is the median share of women per trial for ischaemic heart disease. The datasets, periods and methods of measurement differ. Bars represent each published measure, not a common time series.
A US analysis of 20,020 clinical trials from 2000–2020 found a median proportion of women of around 50 percent overall, but the figure varied by disease area and study design. This illustrates why a single overall percentage does not tell the whole story. Read Steinberg et al. (2021).
The proportion of women alone does not establish whether participation corresponds to disease prevalence or whether researchers analyse results separately by sex. The cardiovascular research study also investigated this and found underrepresentation in several disease categories. Our Norwegian-language research summary explains the methods, results and limitations.
Sources checked on 4 November 2026. Figures are published snapshots and do not update automatically when research groups publish new analyses.
Back to the topic overview04 / Research and funding
What is being researched – and where does the money go?
Here we present the Research Council of Norway's defined surveys of women's health research, a searchable project register and more recent funding calls. These surveys do not cover all research that may be relevant to girls and women. We distinguish project counts, recommended funding amounts, payments and announced funds because they describe different things.
More recent mapping · Research Council of Norway · December 2025
Women's health research in 2018–2024
The Research Council of Norway mapped a more recent portfolio by searching its Project Bank and manually reviewing the results. Projects that began as early as 2011 may be included if they were active during the period. The report uses both 'grant allocation' and 'recommended funding amount' to describe this portfolio. Neither is the same as money actually paid out. This portfolio does not include all women's health research in Norway.
96
projects in total
50
ongoing projects per year on average
NOK 104.5 million
average annual recommended funding amount
Where in Norway are the research institutions located?
The Research Council groups portfolio funding by the project leader's institution, not where participants live or where the research benefits the population.
Oslo region59 % · NOK 868 million
Vestland32 % · NOK 468 million
Trøndelag8 % · NOK 110 million
These are the three largest geographical categories. Nordland received NOK 11 million (0.7 percent) and Agder NOK 2 million (0.1 percent). The report allocates amounts by the institutions of project leaders, not by where the research benefits residents. The report also states that 63 percent of project leaders were women. None of these measures, on its own, shows where research needs are greatest.
What kinds of projects receive funding?
The Research Council's mapping covers several types of research support. Researcher projects account for 54 percent of projects, while 13 percent are classified as other support and 7 percent as competence and collaborative projects. These are shares of the number of projects, not shares of allocated funds.
Researcher project
Researchers at universities, research institutes or hospital trusts apply for funding for a defined research project. The aim is to produce new knowledge, for example about causes of disease, diagnosis or treatment. The category describes the type of support, not the health topic being investigated.
Other support
The Research Council's combined category for types of project support not included in the other application types shown here. The report does not specify every individual scheme behind this bar. We therefore cannot say that the funds went to one particular type of activity.
Competence and collaborative project (KSP)
Researchers work with healthcare services, public bodies, businesses or organisations to develop knowledge needed to address a challenge. A hypothetical example would be researchers and healthcare providers jointly investigating how follow-up care for a patient group could be improved. This example illustrates the scheme, not a particular project in the mapping.
The definitions are based on the Research Council's explanation of application types. These are funding schemes, not a breakdown of research topics.
Researcher projects54% of projects
Recommended funding amount: NOK 724 million
Other support13% of projects
Recommended funding amount: NOK 124 million
Competence and collaborative projects7% of projects
Recommended funding amount: NOK 89 million
Source: Research Council of Norway mapping, summary and Figure 2. Only three project types are shown. 'Other support' is a separate application category. The report's main text places the two Centres of Excellence, with total funding of NOK 404 million over ten years, under 'Other institutional support'. The summary is less explicit about this distinction. We follow the explanation accompanying Figure 2 and do not add the amounts together.
Which research institutions lead the projects?
The breakdown concerns the sectors of the project leaders' institutions, not where patients or participants live. Amounts are recommended funds for the mapped portfolio in 2018–2024.
University and university college sectorNOK 704 million
48% of projects in the report
Research institute sectorNOK 481 million
22% of projects in the report
Hospital trustsNOK 233 million
22% of projects in the report
Source: Research Council of Norway, 'Research on women's health at the Research Council' (December 2025), summary and Figure 4. Three sectors are shown, not the full breakdown. Bars show funding amounts, whereas percentages represent numbers of projects.
Which ministries funded the research?
The Research Council reports that 15 ministries contributed to funding the mapped women's health portfolio. The three largest contributors were the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Health and Care Services, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These amounts concern this defined portfolio in 2018–2024, not the ministries' total health research budgets.
Ministry of Education and ResearchNOK 491 million
Ministry of Health and Care ServicesNOK 251 million
Ministry of Foreign AffairsNOK 157 million
Source: Research Council of Norway mapping, Figure 11, page 13. Only the three largest funding ministries are shown; the bars do not represent percentages of the total.
In a 2023 researcher-project funding call, the Research Council received 126 applications requesting approximately NOK 1.4 billion. Six projects were awarded funding. This concerns the particular call, not all women's health applications that year.
Funding allocations by health category
Reproduction and childbirthNOK 518 million
General health relevanceNOK 145 million
CancerNOK 135 million
Mental healthNOK 132 million
InfectionNOK 60 million
Injuries and accidentsNOK 59 million
NeurologicalNOK 49 million
StrokeNOK 41 million
Inflammation and immune systemNOK 32 million
Other health challengesNOK 31 million
CardiovascularNOK 23 million
Metabolism and hormonesNOK 21 million
MusculoskeletalNOK 18 million
The amounts come from the Research Council report (Figure 12 and the summary) and are stated in millions of Norwegian kroner. Figure 12 gives NOK 132 million for mental health, while the report summary gives NOK 133 million. The chart follows Figure 12. These are not documented payments. The bars show amounts relative to the largest category, not shares of an overall budget.
Important when comparing across time
The Research Council states that the 2024 figures are artificially low because of a change in accounting system and a shorter reporting period. They cannot therefore be used as evidence of a real fall in activity. We do not create a year-by-year chart that conceals this break.
See also the earlier mapping (2018–2021)
Earlier mapping: 2018–2021
The figures below are based on the earlier mapping and use actual payments, not the same funding measure as the report above. The two mappings must not be treated as one continuous time series.
79
identified projects
Projects active during all or part of 2018–2021.
NOK 102 million
annual average
Average annual payments during the period, rounded by the Research Council.
Source: Research Council of Norway, 'Mapping of women's health research funded by the Research Council of Norway 2018–2021' (2024). These are historical figures and must not be interpreted as current funding.
More than half of the projects concerned reproduction and childbirth
41 of the 79 projects (52 percent) were classified under reproduction and childbirth. This represents the share of projects, not the share of funding. The report also found that nine projects received support through specific women's health funding calls in 2017 and 2020. These nine projects received total funding of NOK 115 million over their lifetimes, not necessarily during 2018–2021.
What received the most funding?
The Research Council reports these funding amounts by research topic for 2018–2021. The topics follow the Council's own classification.
Fertility and childbirthNOK 109 million
Cancers affecting womenNOK 59 million
The bars show funding amounts relative to the highest-funded category. Only two documented categories are shown; this is not the full distribution. The sum of the bars must not be interpreted as total funding.
Which topics received less research attention?
The Research Council's mapping found particularly little activity in cardiovascular diseases and metabolism and hormones. The report also points to a need for more knowledge about the health of girls, adolescents, younger and older women.
These are findings from the mapping, not a judgement that the research areas are uninteresting or that other research does not exist. The mapping covers only Research Council funding and uses a particular definition of women's health.
How did the Research Council define women's health research?
The mapping included projects concerning diseases and conditions that affect women exclusively or predominantly (at least 75 percent). Researchers manually reviewed projects after searching the Project Bank. Projects on sex differences in other diseases may therefore be excluded. Tidlignok does not treat this definition as a definitive boundary for all research relevant to girls and women.
New funding initiatives in 2026
A funding call is an opportunity to apply for money. It does not show how much was actually awarded or paid out. We therefore keep these figures separate from the historical payments above.
Closed call · application deadline June 2026
Research on women's health
NOK 105 million
Estimated available funding. The initiative addresses women's health across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on menopausal symptoms. The amount is not confirmed project awards. Projects can begin no earlier than 1 March 2027.
Read the funding callClosed call · application deadline 30 September 2026
National network for women's health research
NOK 4 million
Estimated available funding for one national network, including NOK 1 million contributed by the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association. Award notifications are expected in mid-December 2026. This is support for coordination and collaboration, not a confirmed award or a measure of research projects already started.
Read the funding callHow has funding changed from year to year?
The Research Council mapping shows annual project counts and recommended funding amounts for 2018–2024 in Figure 1. We do not currently show a numeric time-series chart because exact annual values are not included in the machine-readable project extract. The 'awarded amount' field in the open project register covers the entire project duration and cannot be divided evenly across years.
2024 cannot be compared directly with earlier years because the Research Council changed its accounting system and reporting period. Showing the documented break is more important than drawing a continuous line that might misleadingly suggest a decline.
View original Figure 1 showing annual changesResearch Council of Norway open project data
Search registered project candidates
The Research Council of Norway publishes information about applications and awarded projects as open CSV data. We use project numbers to distinguish projects and retain the source information. Search terms can identify candidate projects but cannot, by themselves, determine which projects concern women's health.
66 keyword matches among awarded or completed projects in the retrieved dataset. These are not the 96 manually reviewed projects in the Research Council's mapping. The candidate list is not an editorially approved inventory of women's health research. You can search by project ID, title or institution and browse all registered candidates.
66 candidates match the search. Page 1 of 3.
Project candidates with source information
| Project number and title | Institution | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 213497Metformin treatment of pregnant PCOS women and prevention of preterm birth. | NTNU FAKULTET FOR MEDISIN OG HELSEVITENSKAP | 2012–2020 |
| 228319Avoiding Contraceptive Controversy. Ensuring task Shifting through Standardization of Contraceptive Implant removals. | REMOVAID AS | 2013–2020 |
| 230652Pregnancy acute atherosis and future cardiovascular disease | Institutt for klinisk medisin | 2014–2019 |
| 230861Armed Conflict and Maternal Health in Sub-Saharan Africa | INSTITUTT FOR FREDSFORSKNING STI | 2014–2018 |
| 231149Cardiovascular risk trajectories in women with history of pregnancy complications | Institutt for samfunnsmedisin og sykepleie | 2014–2019 |
| 234376Harmonized Reproductive Health Registry Communication Strategies: Using Health Data to Empower Women and Health Systems | FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET | 2014–2021 |
| 234497NGOs and the transfer of global maternal health policies - NGOMA | Senter for global bærekraft | 2014–2019 |
| 237288An integrated approach for epigenetic risk assessment and biomarker development for breast cancer in prospective cohorts | OSLO UNIVERSITETSSYKEHUS HF | 2014–2018 |
| 239987PCOS mothers and their children: Follow-up of a double-blind,randomized, Norwegian multicentre study on metformin during pregnancy | Institutt for klinisk og molekylær medisin | 2015–2020 |
| 240197A Scandinavian cohort of pregnant women in opioid maintenance treatment during pregnancy: long term consequences for the child | FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET AVD OSLO LINDERN | 2015–2020 |
| 241117Medications during pregnancy: effects on neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and epigenetic outcomes | OSLO UNIVERSITETSSYKEHUS HF | 2015–2023 |
| 245361Novel therapy for basal- and luminal-like subtypes of breast cancer | ARCTIC PHARMA AS | 2015–2018 |
| 246400A randomized placebo controlled phase II study with Metformin in metabolic-unbalanced breast cancer survivors at higher risk for recurrence | DET MEDISINSKE FAKULTET | 2015–2021 |
| 247941Digital breast tomosynthesis, the future screening tool for breast cancer? | FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET AVD KREFTREGISTERET | 2015–2021 |
| 248159Political determinants of sexual and reproductive health: Criminalisation, health impacts and game changers | CHR MICHELSENS INSTITUTT FOR VIDENSKAP OG ÅNDSFRIHET STI | 2016–2023 |
| 250554Elucidating the role of intracellular cell-signaling pathways controlling FOXA1 functions in Breast Cancer | Norsk senter for molekylær biovitenskap og medisin (NCMBM) | 2016–2021 |
| 257484Intratumour heterogeneity, clonal selection and metastatic propensity in breast cancer | Klinisk institutt 2 | 2016–2020 |
| 263907E!10591 Innovative Diagnostic RNA sequencing Platform to improve ovarian cancer outcomes | PUBGENE AS | 2016–2020 |
| 271075Innovative Nanopharmaceuticals: Targeting Breast Cancer Stem Cells by Novel Combination of Epigenetic and Anticancer Drugs with Gene Therapy | STIFTELSEN NILU | 2017–2021 |
| 273345From synapses to symptoms in maternal mental health during pregnancy and postpartum | Psykologisk institutt | 2018–2027 |
| 273354Genome-directed breast cancer therapy | Klinisk institutt 2 | 2018–2022 |
| 273366International Pregnancy Drug Safety Studies (InPreSS). Short- and longer-term safety of drug use in pregnancy | FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET | 2018–2024 |
| 273517Metformin as adjuvant therapy in ovarian cancer, - an international, randomized controlled trial | Institutt for klinisk og molekylær medisin | 2018–2018 |
| 275250Cellular Mechanisms for the Malignant Exploitation of the Altered Metabolic Landscape in Obese Hormone Receptor Negative Breast Cancer | Institutt for biomedisin | 2018–2021 |
| 277144E!11435 Targeted alpha therapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer. | SMERUD MEDICAL RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL AS | 2017–2022 |
| 282040Use of deep learning and Big Data in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program | FOLKEHELSEINSTITUTTET AVD KREFTREGISTERET | 2018–2022 |
| 286887Genetic alterations governing response to breast cancer therapy | Klinisk institutt 2 | 2019–2024 |
| 288260Prenatal BRCA1 methylation and breast and ovarian cancer risk. | Klinisk institutt 2 | 2019–2023 |
| 292798Data-driven Algorithms for Physical Simulations - with applications to breast cancer growth modelling and treatment optimisation | SIMULA RESEARCH LABORATORY AS | 2018–2019 |
| 296671Development of a more specific HPV test to improve and personalize follow-up of patients in the cervical cancer screening program | INVEN2 AS | 2019–2019 |
Source: Research Council of Norway, dataset 'Applications – version 2'. Project number, title, institution and project period come from the source file. Without manual verification, keyword matches are used neither as a complete portfolio nor as the basis for a year-by-year chart.
View the Research Council's open datasetExplore the projects
The Research Council's Project Bank contains projects funded by the Council since 2004 and can be searched by topic, year and organisation. The Project Bank is a starting point for further mapping, but searching for 'women's health' captures neither every relevant project nor only relevant projects. The portfolio report uses both thematic tagging and manual review and covers conditions affecting women exclusively or predominantly (at least 75 percent).
Open the Project BankSources, definitions and limitations
The 2018–2021 figures come from the Research Council's retrospective mapping, published in 2024. The 79 projects may have started before 2018 or ended after 2021. They must therefore not be described as '79 new projects' during the period.
Payments over four years are not the same as total funding granted across the life of the projects. The report also mentions total grants of NOK 940 million to the 79 projects for project periods between 2016 and 2027. This amount must not be added to NOK 413 million.
The 2026 calls describe planned or available funding. We have not documented final awards from these calls. The newer mapping also covers 2022–2024, but annual figures should not be shown as an unbroken series because the data basis changed. We therefore do not construct an invented trend chart.
The Project Bank also contains other types of projects and cannot alone be used to quantify all research on girls' and women's health in Norway. Other sources of funding, such as hospital trusts and foundations, are not included in the historical mapping.