By Gwilym Croucher. The United States has been the leader in fundamental research for the past seven decades, remaining the single-largest contributor to worldwide research, but this is changing. In 2000 the US accounted for 40% of global research and development (R&D) output, reducing to 29.3% by 2013. A central reason for this reduction is China’s investment, which will likely surpass the US in total R&D funding by 2019.
More...