Global R&D Funding Forecast
Showing all of 3 ProductsSorted by latest
Sort by:
2025 Global R&D Funding Forecast
The question is no longer if China will surpass U.S. R&D spending, but what happens next. R&D World's 2025 Global Funding Forecast projects China reaching effective parity with the U.S. this year ($1.05T versus $1.07T in PPP terms), with a full crossover expected by 2026.
While the specifics of the crossover vary based on the model, parity is essentially here. And now, China has a real stake at achieving global R&D leadership, representing the sharpest reversal of innovation leadership in the modern era. For historical context, The U.S. has been the world’s R&D heavyweight since the 1950s, peaking at about 69% of global R&D in 1960. Its share fell to roughly 31% by 2020 as others, led by Asia, scaled up.
While the U.S. faces proposed 57% cuts to NSF funding and terminated research grants worth $1 billion, China is channeling $55 billion into its "Science and Technology Innovation 2030" program. The implications go beyond headline totals: they touch talent flows, research infrastructure, and the direction of strategic technologies.
Key findings reveal of the report include the following and more:
- Asia is projected to capture 42% of global R&D spend in 2025, up from 34% in 2020.
- Samsung Electronics outpacing Qualcomm and Intel combined in USPTO patents.
- A looming 67,000-engineer shortage in U.S. semiconductors by 2030.
2024 Global R&D Funding Forecast
R&D is the primary driver of countries’ growth. For 2024, the 64th year, the editors of R&D World are looking not only at the level of R&D investment for the coming year but also at investment productivity — who is benefiting and by how much. This annual report documents the changing R&D investments in academia, government, and industrial organizations for the top R&D investing countries. While we look at their levels, we focus on their productivity.
2022 Global R&D Funding Forecast
For 2022 and the 63rd consecutive year, the editors of R&D World are focusing on the annual global variants of R&D investments for the upcoming calendar year. In this annual report, we document the changing R&D investments in academia, government and industrial organizations for the top 116 R&D investing countries in the world. We look at the reasons for these changes, their effects on current and future spending, and the net technological results.
For 2022, R&D World’s editors forecast that $2.476 trillion will be invested globally in R&D efforts, an increase of 5.43% over the $2.348 trillion that was spent in calendar 2021. More than 80% (81.6% or $104 billion) of that 2022 R&D spending increase can be accounted for by the annual increases in the Top Ten R&D spending countries (U. S. to Brazil).