How much does the world actually spend on science? 1. US government research funding: ~$99 billion
In FY2024, federal agencies obligated about $47.5B for basic research and $51B for applied research. That's the pool most scientists mean when they say "grants": NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA and others. 2. Add philanthropy: ~$126 billion
Foundations and donors add about $27B on top of federal grants, supporting research at US universities and nonprofit institutes in 2024. That's roughly a fifth of all support for that work. 3. All US R&D: ~$1 trillion
Total US R&D hit $937B in 2023 and an estimated $993B in 2024. Most of it is industry funding product development. Government research and philanthropy together make up only about one-eighth of the total. 4. Global R&D: ~$3.8 trillion
The world spent an estimated $3.8T on R&D in 2024. The US and China each crossed $1T What this means
The money that funds open, curiosity-driven science is a fraction of total R&D, and it flows through slow, centralized channels. Even modest improvements in how that ~$126B is allocated would compound across every field. That $126B is the segment ResearchHub is currently starting with. Moving just 1% of it, about $1.3B a year, through preregistered proposals with incentivized peer review would change how a meaningful share of American science gets funded, reviewed, and shared.