Top funders of operations research, 2023–2025

Research funders ranked by the papers in the 49 tracked operations 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.

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 49 tracked operations research journals (4,697), followed by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (721) and National Science Foundation (557).
In 2025 alone, National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 1,996 of these papers.

Funders named on the most papers, 2023–2025
#	Funder	2023	2024	2025	2023–2025
1	National Natural Science Foundation of China	1,193	1,508	1,996	4,697
2	Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	200	235	286	721
3	National Science Foundation	182	177	198	557
4	European Commission	115	166	175	456
5	Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	108	141	147	396
6	National Key Research and Development Program of China	105	101	153	359
7	National Social Science Fund of China	64	75	148	287
8	Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	72	90	110	272
9	Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	87	90	84	261
10	China Scholarship Council	74	82	103	259
11	National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences	94	92	53	239
12	Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee	55	52	131	238
13	China Postdoctoral Science Foundation	44	75	105	224
14	Japan Society for the Promotion of Science	72	76	65	213
15	Agence Nationale de la Recherche	77	60	67	204
16	National University's Basic Research Foundation of China	73	71	59	203
17	Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China	27	63	109	199
18	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación	62	67	69	198
19	Agencia Estatal de Investigación	66	67	62	195
20	Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	46	57	89	192
21	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	51	56	72	179
22	European Regional Development Fund	64	56	56	176
23	Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior	43	61	69	173
24	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	35	36	95	166
25	National Science and Technology Council	38	49	70	157
26	National Research Foundation of Korea	38	49	69	156
27	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades	40	45	57	142
28	Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo	39	41	61	141
29	Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	40	35	47	122
30	Australian Research Council	34	42	42	118
31	Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality	24	39	54	117
32	Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	42	39	35	116
33	Air Force Office of Scientific Research	30	34	45	109
34	Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province	21	35	52	108
35	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	35	35	38	108
36	Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province	30	26	49	105
37	Office of Naval Research	44	33	28	105
38	Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca	24	37	38	99
39	Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province	25	21	51	97
40	U.S. Department of Transportation	31	31	33	95
41	Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan	43	25	26	94
42	Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo	24	30	29	83
43	HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme	18	34	31	83
44	Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China	29	29	23	81
45	Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	22	27	31	80
46	Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province	20	27	33	80
47	U.S. Department of Energy	26	31	22	79
48	Horizon 2020	31	28	19	78
49	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung	18	30	29	77
50	Ministry of Education - Singapore	19	25	33	77

Cite this page

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

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

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