Conducting search, billions invested in future (7)
I believe the answer is:
combing
'conducting search' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'billions invested in future' is the wordplay.
'billions' becomes 'b'.
'invested in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'future' becomes 'coming' ('coming' can be similar in meaning to 'future').
'b' put inside 'coming' is 'COMBING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for combing that I've seen before include "groom's role?" , "Systematically examining" .)