Actually, it is. They recognize that to get out of the economic trouble they're in, they have to invest heavily in research, and they have targeted academic research as a key to their future. So I think it's actually a very apt comparison.
As well—we see this with young graduate students who complete their PhDs and are looking for places—the top students can find substantially more research support in the United States and often take positions in American universities, and we lose them precisely because we haven't funded our granting councils on a proportionate basis.