Cooperation and interdependence in global science funding

Research and development investments are key to scientific and economic development and to the well-being of society. Because scientific research demands significant resources, national scientific investment is a crucial driver of scientific production. As scientific production becomes increasingly multinational, it is critically important to study how nations' scientific activities are funded both domestically and internationally. By tracing research grants acknowledged in scholarly publications, our study reveals a duopoly of China and the United States in the global funding landscape, with a contrasting funding pattern; while China has surpassed the United States both in acknowledged domestic and international funding with its strong funding activity for the Chinese institutions, the United States largely maintains its place as the most important research partner for most countries. Our results also highlight the precarity of low- and middle-income countries to global funding disruptions. By revealing the complex interdependence and collaboration between countries in the global scientific enterprise, our study informs future studies investigating the national and global scientific enterprise and how funding leads to both productive cooperation and dependencies.