AbstractCurrent debate in much science policy is primarily over research priorities. It generally assumes continuation of the present general system for funding that research. However, this system has the defect of tending to centralize the decisions concerning research priorities and the future of specific researchers and research groups.This paper proposes a more de-centralized market-oriented funding system, in which the use of research papers is monitored, and researchers receive a form of royalty on each such use. The tax-payer would still pay for research, but not until after it started to produce results which were used. A greatly improved form of monitoring citations might provide the measure of usage. Some implications of usage-based funding are considered.