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Astrid Ulv Thom­sen

Ph.d. Fellow

Subjects
Innovation Quantitative methods Gender Equality

Primary research areas

Dis­par­it­ies in Know­ledge Cre­ation and Dif­fu­sion
Aca­dem­ic re­search is a cru­cial driver of in­nov­a­tion and evid­ence-based poli­cy­mak­ing. Yet, the dif­fu­sion of know­ledge from uni­ver­sit­ies to gov­ern­ment and in­dustry is un­even. Sci­ent­ists dif­fer greatly in the vis­ib­il­ity and up­take of their work, and sys­tem­ic bar­ri­ers per­sist for wo­men in par­tic­u­lar. Fe­male aca­dem­ics are less likely to com­mer­cial­ize their find­ings, and their work is less fre­quently cited in pat­ents, even when com­par­able in qual­ity.

My re­search ex­am­ines these dis­par­it­ies, with a fo­cus on how gender in­flu­ences the path­ways of know­ledge dif­fu­sion. I in­vest­ig­ate both de­mand-side and sup­ply-side mech­an­isms that con­trib­ute to un­equal re­cog­ni­tion and use of aca­dem­ic work, and I aim to in­form policies that foster more in­clus­ive know­ledge trans­fer.
The Gender Gap in Sci­ence Fund­ing
Ac­cess to re­search fund­ing is cent­ral to sci­entif­ic pro­gress and ca­reer ad­vance­ment. How­ever, per­sist­ent gender gaps in fund­ing out­comes ex­ist across dis­cip­lines, re­in­for­cing broad­er in­equal­it­ies in aca­demia.

I study where, why, and how these dis­par­it­ies emerge in the fund­ing pro­cess. By identi­fy­ing the struc­tur­al and in­sti­tu­tion­al factors that dis­ad­vant­age wo­men, my re­search con­trib­utes to on­go­ing ef­forts to design equit­able fund­ing sys­tems and more op­por­tun­it­ies for sci­entif­ic ad­vance­ment.

I study how know­ledge is dif­fused, and why it isn’t equally for every­one

I’m a PhD Fellow at the Department of Strategy and Innovation. My PhD thesis, “Three Essays on Gender Disparities in Academic Knowledge Creation and Diffusion”, explores questions around the causes and effects of gender disparities in science funding and dissemination. 

The first chapter, "From the Ivory Tower to Capitol Hill: Which Academics Get a Voice in Congress?", examines academic economists’ engagement with public policymakers and utilize a policy change in Congress, to estimate the causal effect of reducing opportunity costs on the representation of women and geographically remote researchers. The second chapter, "Mechanisms Driving the Gender Gap in Academic Grant Requests", examines the causes of gendered heterogeneity in grant funding applications. The third chapter, "Gender Disparities in Academic Expertise", explores supply side factors contributing to the low representation of female scientists as experts in the public debate and policy advising. 

My PhD is supervised by Valentina Tartari (Stockholm School of Economics) and H.C. Kongsted (Copenhagen Business School). I hold a Bachelor’s degree (BA) from the University of Southern Denmark in International Business Communication in English (International Marketing) and a Master’s degree (MA) from Copenhagen Business School in International Business Communication (Intercultural Marketing).