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.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figure