  In most countries, basic research is supported by research councils that
select, after peer review, the individuals or teams that are to receive
funding. Unfortunately, the number of grants these research councils can
allocate is not infinite and, in most cases, a minority of the researchers
receive the majority of the funds. However, evidence as to whether this is an
optimal way of distributing available funds is mixed. The purpose of this study
is to measure the relation between the amount of funding provided to 12,720
researchers in Quebec over a fifteen year period (1998-2012) and their
scientific output and impact from 2000 to 2013. Our results show that both in
terms of the quantity of papers produced and of their scientific impact, the
concentration of research funding in the hands of a so-called "elite" of
researchers generally produces diminishing marginal returns. Also, we find that
the most funded researchers do not stand out in terms of output and scientific
impact.
