Project title: Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) in innovation and patent inventorship in quantum biotechnology
Supervisors: Associate Professor Alison Fish, Dr David Smerdon and Dr Marita Rodriguez
This research is funded by a CSIRO Next Generation Fellowship through UQ's ARC Centre of Excellence on Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC).
Women are underrepresented in patenting; in 2019 women comprised only 12% of inventors. The STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent pipeline does not fully explain this underrepresentation. Indeed, there is a significant “gap” between the number of women graduating and working in STEM fields and the proportion of women named as inventors on patents. This research aims to understand: What causes the “patenting gap”? Why are women underrepresented in inventing? Are we missing inventions? Quantum biotechnology—a combination of life and physical sciences—offers a fascinating context to investigate the patenting gap in an emerging and multidisciplinary field.