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GBA+ (Gender-Based Analysis Plus)

What it is

GBA+ (Gender-Based Analysis Plus) is a Government of Canada analytical framework used to assess how diverse groups of people may experience policies, programs, and — for our purposes — research. The "plus" signals that the analysis goes beyond sex and gender alone to look at how gender intersects with other identity factors: race, ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability, among others (socioeconomic status, geography, and sexual orientation also come up regularly in federal guidance). The framework traces back to Canada's 1995 commitments under the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and is now maintained by Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE).

In a research context, the federal granting agencies use a related, more specific term: SGBA+ (Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis Plus), which distinguishes:

  • Sex — biological attributes (e.g., anatomy, hormones, genetics), and
  • Gender — socio-cultural factors (identity, expression, roles, relations),

analyzed together with other intersecting identity factors. CIHR's framing: SGBA+ "systematically examines sex-based (biological) and gender-based (socio-cultural) differences between men, women, boys, girls and gender-diverse people," operating within a broader diversity lens that also considers ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, migration status, age, and geography. (CIHR – How to integrate sex and gender into research)

The practical point for a research lab: GBA+ / SGBA+ is not a diversity add-on or an HR policy. It is an analytical step applied to the research itself; namely, who is studied, how variables are measured and disaggregated, whose needs a designed system serves, and whose it does not.

Why it matters for our grant applications

NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC (the Tri-Agencies) all now expect applicants to actively consider sex, gender, and related identity factors in research design, not just in team composition. A few points worth knowing when writing an application:

  • CIHR Project Grant applications require it explicitly. The application asks two mandatory questions: whether sex as a biological variable is taken into account in the research design, methods, analysis, and interpretation or dissemination of findings; and whether gender as a socio-cultural factor is taken into account in the same way. If you answer yes to either, you must describe the integration; if no, you must justify why sex/gender do not apply. Peer reviewers score this explicitly. CIHR also requires the Nominated Principal Applicant to attach a certificate of completion for CIHR's sex- and gender-based analysis training modules. See CIHR Project Grant: Application Instructions and CIHR's GBA+ framework.
  • NSERC and SSHRC increasingly build EDI/GBA+ considerations into review criteria and reporting, and NSERC publishes applicant-facing guidance on considering equity, diversity, and inclusion in the design of the research itself, not only in the composition of the research team; see NSERC's Guide for Applicants: Considering Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Design and Delivery of Research.
  • Requirements and forms change between competition years. Always re-check the current application instructions for the specific competition and program you are applying to, rather than assuming last year's requirements still hold, or relying on this page as current at the time you apply.

Budget time to write a genuine GBA+/SGBA+ statement; reviewers can and do flag a perfunctory one-liner as a weakness.

Why it matters for our HRI research specifically

For a human-robot interaction lab, GBA+ maps onto real methodological risks in study design, not just a box to check on a form:

  • Sampling bias in user studies. HRI studies frequently recruit convenience samples that skew young, able-bodied, and toward one gender or a narrow demographic band. If a target application domain (eldercare, rehabilitation, education, home assistance) involves populations different from the convenience sample, findings may not generalize; a GBA+ lens asks us to name that gap and, where feasible, correct for it.
  • Gendered design assumptions in the robot or agent itself. Robot voice, embodiment, appearance cues, and interaction style can encode and reinforce gender stereotypes (e.g., assistive robots gendered feminine, authoritative or security robots gendered masculine). A GBA+-informed design process asks explicitly whether gendering a robot is necessary for the research question, and if so, whether it is being done deliberately rather than by unexamined default.
  • Accessibility and intersectional factors in interaction design. Disability, age-related sensory or motor differences, language, and cultural background all affect how someone can physically and cognitively interact with a robot. These are exactly the intersecting factors GBA+ asks us to consider, and they matter for whether a system genuinely works for the people it is meant to serve, not just for the cohort we happened to recruit.
  • Data and measurement bias. Vision and speech systems can perform unevenly across demographic groups (skin-tone-dependent computer vision, voice recognition trained predominantly on certain accents or genders). GBA+ asks us to check whether our data sources and trained models embed this kind of bias before treating performance metrics as representative.

Most of the above is already flagged in HRI methods literature as a threat to validity and generalizability; GBA+ gives us a shared checklist and vocabulary for it that also happens to satisfy funders.

How to conduct a GBA+/SGBA+ analysis

When starting a grant application or designing a new study, work through this sequence:

  1. Take the free introductory course. WAGE's self-paced course, Introduction to Gender-based Analysis Plus (course code INC101), is free and open to the public, takes a few hours, and gives a shared vocabulary. Start here: Take the GBA+ course.
  2. If applying to CIHR, complete CIHR's own sex- and gender-based analysis training modules, separate from the WAGE course and specifically required for the Nominated Principal Applicant on CIHR Project Grant applications. See CIHR's GBA+ framework.
  3. Ask the guiding questions against the actual research design. Does the research look at the situations of women, men, and gender-diverse people, not just a default or majority group? Does it look at diversity within those groups (age, disability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status), not just between men and women as monoliths? Does the study design avoid treating one gender or demographic group as the implicit norm against which others are compared? Could the data sources, instruments, sensors, or models used carry embedded bias from how or from whom they were originally collected or trained? Full checklist: GBA+ research checklist and the companion GBA+ research guide.
  4. Translate the answers into concrete design decisions: set explicit demographic targets for the participant sample rather than accepting whoever signs up first, and report sample demographics regardless; check whether sensors, speech recognition, or vision models have documented performance disparities across gender, skin tone, age, or accent; document why a platform has a gendered voice, name, or appearance if it does, and consider whether a non-gendered or configurable option better serves the research question; plan in advance whether and how results will be disaggregated by sex, gender, or other relevant factors.
  5. Write the statement directly into the application, using the agency's specific prompt, describing what was found above and what is being done about it. If a factor genuinely does not apply, say so explicitly and briefly justify why.
  6. Re-verify current requirements before each submission, since forms, required attachments, and character limits change between competition cycles.

Where to go for help

Federal and general resources: WAGE – Gender-based Analysis Plus (main hub); Take the GBA+ course (INC101); GBA+ resources, checklist, and research guide; CIHR – Sex and Gender in Health Research; NSERC – Guide for Applicants: Considering EDI in the Design and Delivery of Research.

A Queen's-specific GBA+/SGBA+ training program, office, or dedicated resource could not be confirmed while researching this page. Queen's Human Rights and Equity Office and the Inclusive Queen's training page cover general EDI training but did not surface GBA+-specific content at the time of writing. If a lab member finds a Queen's-specific GBA+ resource, please update this page rather than relying on the federal resources alone.

Migration note: this page existed only as an empty placeholder title on the original SharePoint wiki, so there was no prior content to migrate. It was newly researched and drafted from current federal and Tri-Agency sources (August 2026) rather than carried over from SharePoint. Please have Prof. Pan review for accuracy, especially the CIHR/NSERC/SSHRC application-requirement specifics, which change between competition cycles, before treating this as authoritative lab guidance.