Partisan disparities in the funding of science in the United States

Science. 2025 Sep 18;389(6766):1195-1200. doi: 10.1126/science.adx5154. Epub 2025 Sep 18.

Alexander C Furnas^{1

2

3}, Nic Fishman⁴, Leah Rosenstiel⁵, Dashun Wang^{1

2

3

6}

¹ Center for Science of Science and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
² Ryan Institute on Complexity, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
³ Northwestern Innovation Institute, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
⁴ Department of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Political Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁶ McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.

Abstract

Republican lawmakers consistently provided robust federal funding, often exceeding Democrats.