News Release 12-217
U.S. Universities Report Highest-ever R&D Spending in Fiscal Year 2011
Between fiscal years 2010 and 2011, university spending on research and development rose 6.3 percent to $65 billion
![Photo of a microscope.](/news/mmg/media/images/universities_rnd_f.jpg)
Life sciences represents one of the most rapidly-growing areas of R&D spending.
November 26, 2012
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
The National Science Foundation released a report today showing that university spending on research and development in all fields continued to increase between fiscal years (FY) 2010 and 2011, reaching $65 billion in FY 2011. This figure represents a 6.3 percent increase from the previous year and includes $4.2 billion in expenditures associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The majority of university R&D was concentrated in the life sciences, which grew 6.6 percent to $37.2 billion. Engineering was the next largest broad field and showed a 7.7 percent increase to $10 billion in fiscal 2011.
For more information on this report, please contact Ronda Britt.
Please visit the NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics for more reports and other products.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Deborah Wing, NSF, (703) 292-5344, email: dwing@nsf.gov
Program Contacts
Ronda Britt, NSF, (703) 292-7765, email: rbritt@nsf.gov
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