The United States allocates a larger share of its higher education R&D investment to the natural sciences than most other Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
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Why is this indicator important?
Academic R&D investment is a leading indicator of national capacity across the S&E fields, signifying not only the conduct of R&D across fields but also the support of graduate students who will comprise the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Key Observations
Not all countries are equally engaged in all fields of science and engineering; nations differ in their choices for academic R&D investments.
Compared to other major industrialized nations, the United States allocates a larger share of its higher education R&D expenditures to the natural sciences and a smaller share to engineering and to social sciences.
Related Discussion
Countries differ in how data for the humanities and social sciences is defined, collected and reported.
Note that these data are sporadic and, for some countries, quite old.