What is Gender Bias in Grant Peer review?

Competition for research funding on the basis of peer-reviewed grant applications is an essential component of knowledge production. Although women's participation in science is increasing, challenges remain in achieving gender equality in the allocation of research grants. There is a very large literature that attempts to describe and analyze gender bias in academia. However, grant peer review is often researched separately in different disciplines, each applying different criteria and studying different phenomena. The complexity of multi-stage decision making in grant funding mechanisms is largely overlooked in the literature. This study presents a conceptual toolbox to understand gender bias in grant peer review. It explains the key concepts of peer review and the relationships between them, identifies theories of bias applicable to grant peer review, and analyzes their effects in different decision-making contexts.