According to the Nature Index 2020 Annual Tables, the United States is the world leader in natural science research with an index of 20,152.48.
The largest “investors” in the natural sciences (e.g. biological and medical research, clinical psychology, applied physics) in the United States are the National Institute of Health (NIH), which provides grants of up to $250,000 annually for 5 years per study, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which in 2009 allocated about $6.4 billion for research. Grants support a huge number of scientists (for example, the NIH issues about 50 thousand grants per year).
Of course, various grants are also provided by non-profit organizations: a striking example is the American Heart Association, which provides about $160 million per year.
All research results (and this applies not only to the natural sciences) must be presented at scientific conferences or in articles, which emphasizes the fact that American scientists are committed to the idea of communicating their research to the public. The results obtained can also be protected by patents.
Although preference is given to natural science areas, humanities research (primarily empirical) also attracts a large share of funding. And the grant system and competitions for obtaining it are only one part of the complex mechanism of funding science in the USA.
