Top funders of higher education and research, 2023–2025

Research funders ranked by the papers in the 13 tracked higher education and research 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 13 tracked higher education and research journals (273), followed by National Science Foundation (116) and National Social Science Fund of China (96).
In 2025 alone, National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 101 of these papers.

Funders named on the most papers, 2023–2025
#	Funder	2023	2024	2025	2023–2025
1	National Natural Science Foundation of China	71	101	101	273
2	National Science Foundation	29	40	47	116
3	National Social Science Fund of China	24	24	48	96
4	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung	18	30	18	66
5	European Commission	14	17	29	60
6	Economic and Social Research Council	14	29	9	52
7	Japan Society for the Promotion of Science	19	16	17	52
8	Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	14	14	17	45
9	National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences	19	11	10	40
10	Australian Research Council	12	13	12	37
11	Universitat Oberta de Catalunya	31	0	0	31
12	Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	11	11	6	28
13	Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee	4	10	10	24
14	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación	5	11	7	23
15	Agencia Estatal de Investigación	5	10	7	22
16	China Scholarship Council	3	10	9	22
17	Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo	5	7	9	21
18	Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China	2	10	9	21
19	National Research Foundation of Korea	9	3	9	21
20	Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	7	6	7	20
21	Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior	7	6	7	20
22	Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	7	3	10	20
23	Norges Forskningsråd	5	5	10	20
24	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	6	8	5	19
25	Ministry of Education	7	2	10	19
26	Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation	3	7	8	18
27	Education University of Hong Kong	0	8	10	18
28	National Science and Technology Council	3	6	9	18
29	Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China	2	6	9	17
30	Spencer Foundation	2	8	7	17
31	University Grants Committee	2	7	8	17
32	European Regional Development Fund	6	6	4	16
33	National Institutes of Health	3	6	7	16
34	National Research Foundation	4	7	5	16
35	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada	5	6	5	16
36	Hong Kong Institute of Education	1	5	9	15
37	Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	3	5	7	15
38	Lingnan University	4	4	7	15
39	China Postdoctoral Science Foundation	3	4	7	14
40	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades	0	6	8	14
41	Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	5	4	5	14
42	Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung	3	4	7	14
43	University of South Australia	3	3	8	14
44	Institute of Education Sciences	2	5	6	13
45	National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science	6	2	5	13
46	Vetenskapsrådet	4	3	6	13
47	HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme	0	4	8	12
48	Jacobs Foundation	3	3	5	11
49	Lunds Universitet	3	4	4	11
50	World Bank Group	3	3	5	11

Cite this page

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

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

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