Fig. 2: Predicted yearly number of articles depending on whether or not the researchers were treated (as PI or Co-PI) or not (no funding), given the researcher’s age group (left) and the research field (right).

To predict the article count the baseline confounding variables were fixed to Year 2015–19, Male, Evaluation Score Score AB-A, University, LS in the age interaction model and age lower to 45 for the field interaction model. We see a significant positive percentage change of 18% for the youngest age group among PIs (<45) and 115% for the most senior researchers (>65) compared to no SNSF funding. Additionally, the effect of funding is largest for STEM researchers (23% more articles as PI compared to unfunded researchers. The effect in LS and SSH is less prominent, +15% and +12%, respectively.