---
title: "Top funders of operations research, 2023–2025"
description: "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."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/operations-research
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/operations-research.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "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… (as of 2026-10-31)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-10-31T19:11:11+09:00
window: 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-31
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# 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.

By category: [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/finance.md) · [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/accounting.md) · [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/economics.md) · [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/health-economics-and-policy.md) · [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/management.md) · [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/marketing.md) · [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/information-systems.md) · [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/tourism-and-hospitality.md) · [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/higher-education-and-research.md) · [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/operations-research.md) · [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/statistics.md) · [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/funders/ai.md)

## 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](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-natural-science-foundation-of-china.md) | 1,193 | 1,508 | 1,996 | 4,697 |
| 2 | [Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/fundamental-research-funds-for-the-central-universities.md) | 200 | 235 | 286 | 721 |
| 3 | [National Science Foundation](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-science-foundation.md) | 182 | 177 | 198 | 557 |
| 4 | [European Commission](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/european-commission.md) | 115 | 166 | 175 | 456 |
| 5 | [Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/natural-sciences-and-engineering-research-council-of-canada.md) | 108 | 141 | 147 | 396 |
| 6 | [National Key Research and Development Program of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-key-research-and-development-program-of-china.md) | 105 | 101 | 153 | 359 |
| 7 | [National Social Science Fund of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-social-science-fund-of-china.md) | 64 | 75 | 148 | 287 |
| 8 | [Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/conselho-nacional-de-desenvolvimento-cientifico-e-tecnologico.md) | 72 | 90 | 110 | 272 |
| 9 | [Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/deutsche-forschungsgemeinschaft.md) | 87 | 90 | 84 | 261 |
| 10 | [China Scholarship Council](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/china-scholarship-council.md) | 74 | 82 | 103 | 259 |
| 11 | [National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-office-for-philosophy-and-social-sciences.md) | 94 | 92 | 53 | 239 |
| 12 | [Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/research-grants-council-university-grants-committee.md) | 55 | 52 | 131 | 238 |
| 13 | [China Postdoctoral Science Foundation](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/china-postdoctoral-science-foundation.md) | 44 | 75 | 105 | 224 |
| 14 | [Japan Society for the Promotion of Science](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/japan-society-for-the-promotion-of-science.md) | 72 | 76 | 65 | 213 |
| 15 | [Agence Nationale de la Recherche](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/agence-nationale-de-la-recherche.md) | 77 | 60 | 67 | 204 |
| 16 | [National University's Basic Research Foundation of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-university-s-basic-research-foundation-of-china.md) | 73 | 71 | 59 | 203 |
| 17 | [Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/humanities-and-social-science-fund-of-ministry-of-education-of-china.md) | 27 | 63 | 109 | 199 |
| 18 | [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/ministerio-de-ciencia-e-innovacion.md) | 62 | 67 | 69 | 198 |
| 19 | [Agencia Estatal de Investigación](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/agencia-estatal-de-investigacion.md) | 66 | 67 | 62 | 195 |
| 20 | [Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/ministry-of-education-of-the-people-s-republic-of-china.md) | 46 | 57 | 89 | 192 |
| 21 | [Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/fundacao-para-a-ciencia-e-a-tecnologia.md) | 51 | 56 | 72 | 179 |
| 22 | [European Regional Development Fund](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/european-regional-development-fund.md) | 64 | 56 | 56 | 176 |
| 23 | [Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/coordenacao-de-aperfeicoamento-de-pessoal-de-nivel-superior.md) | 43 | 61 | 69 | 173 |
| 24 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 35 | 36 | 95 | 166 |
| 25 | [National Science and Technology Council](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-science-and-technology-council.md) | 38 | 49 | 70 | 157 |
| 26 | [National Research Foundation of Korea](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/national-research-foundation-of-korea.md) | 38 | 49 | 69 | 156 |
| 27 | [Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/ministerio-de-ciencia-innovacion-y-universidades.md) | 40 | 45 | 57 | 142 |
| 28 | Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo | 39 | 41 | 61 | 141 |
| 29 | [Horizon 2020 Framework Programme](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/horizon-2020-framework-programme.md) | 40 | 35 | 47 | 122 |
| 30 | [Australian Research Council](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/australian-research-council.md) | 34 | 42 | 42 | 118 |
| 31 | [Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/natural-science-foundation-of-beijing-municipality.md) | 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](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/basic-and-applied-basic-research-foundation-of-guangdong-province.md) | 21 | 35 | 52 | 108 |
| 35 | [Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/engineering-and-physical-sciences-research-council.md) | 35 | 35 | 38 | 108 |
| 36 | [Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/natural-science-foundation-of-jiangsu-province.md) | 30 | 26 | 49 | 105 |
| 37 | Office of Naval Research | 44 | 33 | 28 | 105 |
| 38 | [Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/ministero-dellistruzione-delluniversita-e-della-ricerca.md) | 24 | 37 | 38 | 99 |
| 39 | [Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/natural-science-foundation-of-shandong-province.md) | 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](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/horizon-europe-framework-programme.md) | 18 | 34 | 31 | 83 |
| 44 | [Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/humanities-and-social-sciences-youth-foundation-ministry-of-education-of-the-peo.md) | 29 | 29 | 23 | 81 |
| 45 | Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 22 | 27 | 31 | 80 |
| 46 | [Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/natural-science-foundation-of-hunan-province.md) | 20 | 27 | 33 | 80 |
| 47 | U.S. Department of Energy | 26 | 31 | 22 | 79 |
| 48 | [Horizon 2020](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/horizon-2020.md) | 31 | 28 | 19 | 78 |
| 49 | [Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung](https://scholar4ai.com/funders/bundesministerium-fur-bildung-und-forschung.md) | 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

```bibtex
@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}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).