Top funders of economics research, 2023–2025

Research funders ranked by the papers in the 123 tracked economics 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.

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Key findings#

From 2023 to 2025, National Natural Science Foundation of China was named as a funder of the most papers in the 123 tracked economics journals (3,365), followed by National Social Science Fund of China (1,052) and European Commission (888).
In 2025 alone, National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 1,384 of these papers.

Funders named on the most papers, 2023–2025
#	Funder	2023	2024	2025	2023–2025
1	National Natural Science Foundation of China	900	1,081	1,384	3,365
2	National Social Science Fund of China	193	296	563	1,052
3	European Commission	244	291	353	888
4	Japan Society for the Promotion of Science	283	306	261	850
5	National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences	298	336	190	824
6	Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	176	168	251	595
7	Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	156	215	180	551
8	Agence Nationale de la Recherche	167	155	181	503
9	National Science Foundation	167	166	148	481
10	Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	118	135	214	467
11	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación	92	147	121	360
12	Economic and Social Research Council	141	108	90	339
13	Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China	54	87	168	309
14	Agencia Estatal de Investigación	75	116	103	294
15	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades	64	103	96	263
16	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	85	91	86	262
17	European Research Council	66	66	94	226
18	China Postdoctoral Science Foundation	47	69	108	224
19	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada	61	77	73	211
20	Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	71	53	83	207
21	World Bank Group	63	60	83	206
22	Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China	25	57	118	200
23	National University's Basic Research Foundation of China	83	62	55	200
24	H2020 European Research Council	70	63	56	189
25	Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca	54	60	72	186
26	National Research Foundation of Korea	49	64	72	185
27	Australian Research Council	56	64	63	183
28	Horizon 2020	83	60	40	183
29	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung	50	62	68	180
30	Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	47	59	66	172
31	Ministry of Education	40	48	83	171
32	Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung	53	60	57	170
33	HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme	39	50	78	167
34	European Regional Development Fund	37	59	59	155
35	Norges Forskningsråd	44	48	62	154
36	Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior	35	36	45	116
37	National Key Research and Development Program of China	34	35	45	114
38	Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	37	33	41	111
39	Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province	22	22	67	111
40	China Scholarship Council	25	38	46	109
41	Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	35	36	38	109
42	Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo	23	30	51	104
43	Ministero dell'Istruzione e del Merito	20	39	44	103
44	National Science and Technology Council	27	23	53	103
45	Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	39	32	27	98
46	Generalitat de Catalunya	24	33	41	98
47	Narodowe Centrum Nauki	38	29	31	98
48	Grantová Agentura České Republiky	23	39	34	96
49	Peking University	19	24	50	93
50	National Institute of Food and Agriculture	30	30	29	89

Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Top funders of economics research, 2023–2025. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/economics

@misc{scholar4ai-rankings-funders-economics,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Top funders of economics research, 2023–2025},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/economics}},
  urldate = {2026-10-31},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}

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