European countries have increasingly invested in higher education and science systems, leading to rising numbers of scholars and scientists, considerable infrastructure development, and dense cross-cultural networks and collaboration. The result: significant growth in scientific output and productivity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. For four EU member states in Western Europe of different size and institutionalization pathways of science, we assess the development and current state of universities and research institutes, and the resulting science output. We measure output in peer-reviewed research articles collected in Thomson Reuters’ Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). Based on a comprehensive historical database, this comparison uncovers both stable and dynamic patterns of productivity from 1975 to 2010 in Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.[1] This emphasizes different institutionalization pathways that created the conditions necessary for continuous, but varying growth in scientific productivity in the European center of global science. Today, these countries invest considerably in research and development (R&D) and in higher education, the smaller ones doing so through a single national research university (Luxembourg), or a set of strong research universities in different regions (Belgium’s language communities of Flanders and Wallonia). The two larger countries (France and Germany) maintain differentiated systems of universities—of varying size and prestige—and extra-university research institutes that are connected in large umbrella associations or coordinated by government agencies. Rising science productivity reflects considerable state investment, yet the impact of any individual scientific article remains difficult to measure. ; SPHERE