Why funding alone does not create better radar

Why did the Axis powers not match British and American radar investment earlier?

Money matters, but research also depends on trained scientists, engineers, institutions, and the capacity to turn ideas into working systems.

Research requires a trained workforce as well as money. An illustrative comparison gives a thousand qualified researchers two hundred five-person teams, while a hundred can staff only twenty, regardless of the funding available. Funded posts and a sustained training pipeline are needed to build that workforce, and the aftermath of World War I and treaty restrictions disrupted those institutions. Research talent is also distinct from the work of organising, industrialising, and deploying a design. Britain had strong research but less capacity to turn every idea into mass-produced equipment, while the United States could often fund that later stage. The explanation concerns institutions and production capacity, without claiming that one country's engineers were inherently better.