ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) fund research. From the standpoint of being "powers" on the world R&D scene, the only OECD member nations that really count are the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The OECD nations all seem to follow similar patterns of R&D funding. What differences there are can be explained largely by differences in spending on defense R&D. As in the United States, researchers in the OECD nations have problems with continuity of funding, despite having government support. Big science seems to have the same allure in other industrialized nations as it does in the United States. About the only difference is that other nations, being much smaller than the United States, can afford most big science only through international cooperation. Once science is funded by the government, the allocation of funds inevitably becomes political.
