Top funders of AI research, 2023–2025
Research funders ranked by the papers in the 29 tracked AI journals that name them, in each year from 2023 to 2025. Funders are the organisations OpenAlex links to a paper from its funding information (Crossref metadata and the paper's acknowledgements); a paper counts once for each funder it names. Grant numbers are not shown. Also as Markdown.
By category: Finance · Accounting · Economics · Health Economics and Policy · Management · Marketing · Information Systems · Tourism and Hospitality · Higher Education and Research · Operations Research · Statistics · AI
Key findings#
- From 2023 to 2025, National Natural Science Foundation of China was named as a funder of the most papers in the 29 tracked AI journals (18,793), followed by National Key Research and Development Program of China (3,230) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2,227).
- In 2025 alone, National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 8,278 of these papers.
| # | Funder | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2023–2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Natural Science Foundation of China | 4,728 | 5,787 | 8,278 | 18,793 |
| 2 | National Key Research and Development Program of China | 923 | 953 | 1,354 | 3,230 |
| 3 | Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities | 570 | 646 | 1,011 | 2,227 |
| 4 | China Postdoctoral Science Foundation | 253 | 290 | 451 | 994 |
| 5 | European Commission | 228 | 259 | 308 | 795 |
| 6 | Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province | 146 | 211 | 376 | 733 |
| 7 | Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province | 154 | 195 | 346 | 695 |
| 8 | National Science Foundation | 233 | 230 | 227 | 690 |
| 9 | National Research Foundation of Korea | 192 | 211 | 228 | 631 |
| 10 | Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province | 122 | 120 | 235 | 477 |
| 11 | Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality | 99 | 133 | 216 | 448 |
| 12 | Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province | 98 | 146 | 188 | 432 |
| 13 | China Scholarship Council | 113 | 144 | 146 | 403 |
| 14 | Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province | 99 | 106 | 190 | 395 |
| 15 | Australian Research Council | 136 | 118 | 127 | 381 |
| 16 | Agencia Estatal de Investigación | 140 | 114 | 114 | 368 |
| 17 | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 123 | 128 | 114 | 365 |
| 18 | National University's Basic Research Foundation of China | 111 | 91 | 160 | 362 |
| 19 | Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province | 93 | 117 | 150 | 360 |
| 20 | Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China | 88 | 96 | 144 | 328 |
| 21 | Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing | 57 | 104 | 164 | 325 |
| 22 | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | 120 | 106 | 95 | 321 |
| 23 | Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea | 75 | 60 | 184 | 319 |
| 24 | European Regional Development Fund | 104 | 92 | 122 | 318 |
| 25 | Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación | 123 | 88 | 103 | 314 |
| 26 | Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China | 73 | 74 | 167 | 314 |
| 27 | Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program | 56 | 83 | 173 | 312 |
| 28 | Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion | 69 | 78 | 147 | 294 |
| 29 | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | 100 | 93 | 97 | 290 |
| 30 | Key Technologies Research and Development Program | 40 | 66 | 140 | 246 |
| 31 | Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades | 83 | 81 | 79 | 243 |
| 32 | Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province | 41 | 61 | 124 | 226 |
| 33 | Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province | 44 | 65 | 117 | 226 |
| 34 | Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province | 40 | 63 | 122 | 225 |
| 35 | Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province | 44 | 56 | 124 | 224 |
| 36 | National Social Science Fund of China | 52 | 55 | 114 | 221 |
| 37 | Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 84 | 67 | 66 | 217 |
| 38 | Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico | 77 | 72 | 64 | 213 |
| 39 | National Institutes of Health | 69 | 68 | 74 | 211 |
| 40 | Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality | 50 | 74 | 86 | 210 |
| 41 | Key Research and Development Projects of Shaanxi Province | 35 | 50 | 124 | 209 |
| 42 | Agence Nationale de la Recherche | 65 | 86 | 56 | 207 |
| 43 | Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality | 53 | 64 | 86 | 203 |
| 44 | Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province | 36 | 64 | 102 | 202 |
| 45 | National Research Foundation | 63 | 67 | 71 | 201 |
| 46 | National Science and Technology Major Project | 12 | 56 | 128 | 196 |
| 47 | Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | 68 | 60 | 61 | 189 |
| 48 | Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project | 49 | 52 | 83 | 184 |
| 49 | HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme | 45 | 55 | 76 | 176 |
| 50 | Chinese Academy of Sciences | 70 | 56 | 48 | 174 |
Cite this page
Scholar4AI. (2026). Top funders of AI research, 2023–2025. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/ai
@misc{scholar4ai-rankings-funders-ai,
author = {{Scholar4AI}},
title = {Top funders of AI research, 2023–2025},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/ai}},
urldate = {2026-10-31},
note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}