Discriminated against?

People who identify as "aboriginal" find it more difficult to get start-up grants, or so we are being told. 

The  immediate suggestion of course is that this is "because they are aboriginal". However there may be a great deal more to it than that. 

When someone mentions the word "grant" I feel that sense of despair and frustration most academics must feel. I can remember all too well how tense things were in the research unit I once worked in. It was time to apply for a renewal for their grant from the Social Science Research Council. They were doing good work. It was providing the government with essential information. They had detailed plans about what was to be done next. My tiny piece of research was there in the list of things which were being done and the importance (or otherwise) of it was added to the list of why the unit needed to survive. Everyone was anxiously awaiting the result. When it came there was a sigh of relief. One staff member's funding was not renewed but he wasn't in the least concerned. He was off to, for him, greener pastures. Salaries would not be increased but they were still being paid. Plans could be made for the next round of funding. The pressure was back on but in a different way.

Out in the real world there were undoubtedly thousands of other individuals and groups also looking for grants for all sorts of reasons. Some would succeed and others would fail. People would be given grants for apparently ridiculous activities. Some would succeed because they "know the right people". Others would fail, indeed most would fail.

It isn't easy to get a grant. I thought of this as I read the article claiming that "aboriginal" people were discriminated against when it came to grants funding. I had been given it by someone who asked, "What do you think Cat? Do you think we need to do something about it?"

I considered this carefully, very carefully. In the end I said I saw no reason to do anything about the funding side. People who identify as aboriginal actually have access to all grant funding generally available and they also have access to funds set aside specifically for aboriginal people. I did suggest that more help could be given with making grant applications. That met with a concerted groan but an acknowledgment that it is very difficult to write a successful grant application if you know nothing about the process. 

It is possible to have a very good idea and have put a lot of work into it but it can still fail to get a grant. It can fail for any number of reasons. That said the idea that it fails solely because someone is "aboriginal" is not one I would subscribe to. I am almost certain that if the projects were looked at (as most are) without knowing the ethnicity of the aboriginal applicant(s) then the success rate would be not very different from the rest of the community - and that success rate would be low.  This is just how it happens to be. It is even likely that, in most cases, those awarding the grants are unaware of the ethnicity of those involved unless a point is made of mentioning it. 

I am much more concerned about people like a friend of mine who, despite having a great many well regarded academic papers and several books to her name, has never managed to get a big research grant. Being disabled as well as female has just made it more difficult but she keeps on working and using smaller grants for the same purposes. Her students on the other hand have an unusually high success rate in examinations and job applications. Other staff go to her for help with their grant applications because she knows what they should emphasise and how they should put it.

Yes, there is discrimination out there. It may be however that it is not where those claiming "it's because I'm aboriginal" say it is. Grant applications, any sort of grant applications, are hard work and they fail more often than they succeed. If they do, you try again.