There is a large body of work documenting the non-consensual effects of natural resources. Despite this extensive literature and the importance of innovation on economic outcomes, surprisingly little is known about the effect of natural resources on the research sector. This study proposes to fill this gap by examining the effect of natural resources on research and development expenditure. Using data from 82 developed and developing countries, we show that natural resources have on average a negative effect on research and development investment. We also find that natural resources are negatively associated with research and development expenditure in the public sector, higher education, and business sector. Distinguishing between different natural resources, we find that only point resources have a negative effect on the priorities given to research investments. Nevertheless, our results show that institutional quality and human capital are mechanisms to mitigate this trend