List of top research universities by funding
Switzerland topped the ranking for spending the most on research Image: Lucas Vasques/Unsplash
The United States is continuing to fall behind other developed nations in funding for university research according to The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. That's despite the U.S. being home to world-leading research universities that have played an important role in driving American technological supremacy since the Second World War. In 2013, the U.S. was ranked 24th in university funding as a share of GDP and by 2017, it had slipped to 28th.
Research universities play a crucial role in generating innovation-based economic growth, both through the training of scientists and engineers as well as the generation and transfer of knowledge. In 2017, Switzerland invested 0.76 percent of its GDP in university research, more than 3.7 times as high as U.S. state and federal funding. With 0.72 percent, Denmark had the second-highest level of investment, followed by Norway with 0.64 percent. Even though the U.S. is falling further down the ranking, it is still ahead of Japan, New Zealand, China, and Russia.
The analysis blamed several factors on the U.S. funding decline such as 20 years of underfunding by state governments as well as foreign universities gaining ground on their U.S. counterparts. If the U.S. is to regain an edge and manage to return to the forefront of innovation, it will have to reverse those trends and drastically increase its funding. In order for that to occur, Congress would have to commit to increasing funding for university research by $45 billion annually which would place the U.S. among the world's top seven nations.
Top Research Universities by Funding
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Education, Gender and Work
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Jobs and the Future of WorkSee all
Emma Charlton
November 22, 2024