AbstractAn overview is presented of trends in government expenditure on academic and related research in eight leading industrial nations for the period 1975-87. This shows that the USA remained the dominant force in academic research, at least in terms of total spending. A very large part of its efforts was concentrated in life sciences, while in France and Germany the emphasis was on physical sciences and in Japan on engineering. High priority was accorded to environmental sciences in both Australia and the UK. In most countries traditionally financing universities through a dual-sup pori system, there is evidence of a shift from institutional core-funding to research council grants and programmes as governments pursue policies aimed at achieving greater budgetary flexibility.