China could be the world's biggest public funder of science within two years

"Government spending on R&D in China increased by 90% to US$133 billion in the decade leading up to 2023, according to the most recent purchasing-power-adjusted data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). By contrast, in the United States, spending rose by just 12%, to $155 billion."

"According to the FSIP's forecast, China's public spending on research is likely to overtake that of the United States in the next two to three years. 'I think the earliest likely is 2028, plus [or] minus one year,' says Robert Conn, a specialist in research policy and science philanthropy, who co-leads the FSIP."

"The United States has been the global leader in R&D investment since the end of the Second World War. China taking the lead in public research spending would therefore be a watershed moment. It would set the scene for the emergence of a new 'hegemon' in science, says Meghan Ostertag, who studies economic policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation."

China's public research funding has grown 90% to $133 billion over the past decade, while US spending increased only 12% to $155 billion. Researchers from UC San Diego's Frontiers in Science and Innovation Policy program forecast that China will become the world's largest public funder of research by 2028, plus or minus one year. This would represent a watershed moment, as the United States has led global R&D investment since World War II. China's emergence as a scientific hegemon would reshape the global research landscape. The country has already surpassed the United States on multiple research performance metrics, including contributions to major natural-science and health-science journals tracked by Nature Index.

Read at Nature