by Ronda Britt[1]

University spending on research and development in all fields continued to increase between FY 2010 and FY 2011, rising 6.3% from $61.2 billion to $65.1 billion, according to FY 2011 data from the National Science Foundation's Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey (figure 1). When adjusted for inflation, higher education R&D rose by 4.3% in FY 2011. It should be noted that the survey population also increased from 742 universities in 2010 to 912 universities in 2011. These new units added $533 million in total R&D expenditures in FY 2011. (See "Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability" for more information.)

  Figure 1 Source Data: Excel file

Once again, funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was responsible for much of the increase, with ARRA-funded expenditures totaling $4.2 billion in FY 2011. ARRA funding represented 10.2% of the federally funded R&D expenditures for FY 2011. Including ARRA funding, the total federal funding for higher education R&D rose to $40.8 billion in FY 2011, or 62.6% of the $65.1 billion total.

Among the nonfederal sources of funding, only nonprofit organizations and the academic institutions themselves contributed more in FY 2011 than in FY 2010 (figure 1). Institution-funded R&D rose by over $500 million to $12.4 billion, and nonprofit-funded R&D increased by a more modest $104 million to $3.8 billion in FY 2011. Expenditures funded by state and local government, business, and other sources were virtually unchanged.

Unless otherwise indicated, references to dollar amounts or percentages in this InfoBrief are in current dollars.

R&D Expenditures by Field and Source of Funding

Life sciences continued to dominate among the 10 broad fields collected, growing 6.6% to $37.2 billion in FY 2011 (table 1). The majority of the funding ($20.4 billion) was spent within the subfield of medical sciences. Engineering was the next largest broad field and increased 7.7% in FY 2011 to $10.0 billion in reported R&D expenditures. Social sciences grew by 2.7% in FY 2011 to $2.0 billion, almost returning to its FY 2009 total after a decline in FY 2010. R&D within non-science and engineering (non-S&E) rose rapidly, showing a 10.5% increase from FY 2010 to $3.2 billion.

The life sciences received the largest amount of funding from each of the sources, ranging from 66.8% of the funding provided by nonprofit organizations to just over half (51.6%) of institution funds (table 2). Engineering was the second largest field across all sources, ranging from 8.8% of the funding from nonprofit organizations to 25.9% of business-funded expenditures. The remaining fields were funded in relatively equal proportions by the various sources, with the exception of institutional funding of non-S&E R&D. Reflecting the relatively fewer sources of external support for R&D in such fields, institutions themselves contributed 11.2% of their total funding to projects within non-S&E fields, surpassing the federal government's contribution for non-S&E R&D projects.[2]

R&D Spending for Top 30 Performers

Of the 912 institutions surveyed, the top 30 in terms of R&D expenditures in all fields accounted for 40.1% of total academic R&D spending (table 3). There were only two changes to the top 30 between FY 2010 and FY 2011. The University of Southern California moved from number 28 to 31, and Harvard University entered the top 30 at number 27. Six institutions now report over $1 billion each in R&D spending, up from four in FY 2010.

Among the top 30, the percentage of R&D funds provided by the federal government, including ARRA funding, varied dramatically: from 35.6% of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center total to 87.8% of the total for the Johns Hopkins University, including its Applied Physics Laboratory. The percentage of total R&D funded by ARRA also varied, ranging from 2.1% of Texas A&M University's total to 13.8% of the University of Washington Seattle's total.

ARRA Funding by State

On average, ARRA funds contributed 6.4% of the total spent on higher education R&D within a state. The state with the highest proportion was Maine, with 13.3% of its $140 million total funded by ARRA. Vermont (11.4%) and Washington (11.3%) were also well above the national average. North Dakota (2.0%), Mississippi (2.1%), and South Dakota (2.7%) had the lowest proportions of ARRA funding for higher education R&D (figure 2).

  Figure 2 Source Data: Excel file

R&D Expenditures within Medical Schools

In FY 2010, the redesigned HERD Survey began capturing the amount of R&D spending that occurred within an institution's medical school. This detail allows institutions with and without medical schools to more accurately compare themselves with peer institutions, and it provides a national total for R&D spending within medical schools.[3]

Of the $65.1 billion total, 35.5% ($23.1 billion) was spent within medical schools. Duke University reported the largest amount of medical school R&D in FY 2011 ($831 million, or 81.3% of their FY 2011 total). Of the top 10 institutions, six reported medical school R&D spending that accounted for more than 70% of their total R&D expenditures (table 4).

Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability

The fiscal year referred to throughout this report is the academic fiscal year; for most institutions FY 2011 represents the period 1 July 2010 through 30 June 2011. The higher education R&D expenditures data presented in this InfoBrief were obtained from 912 universities and colleges that grant bachelor's or higher degrees and expended at least $150,000 in R&D during the survey period. The survey population included an additional 170 institutions in FY 2011. This increase is due to the screening conducted in FY 2010 via the HERD Short Form Survey. For more details on the Short Form, see appendix D of the FY 2010 HERD detailed statistical tables at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf12330/.

Although ARRA funding was awarded to institutions in federal FY 2009, much of the funding was for multiyear projects. ARRA expenditures are expected to appear in HERD totals through academic FY 2013. The amounts reported include all funds expended for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes and sponsored by an outside organization or separately budgeted using institution funds. R&D expenditures at university-administered federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are collected in a separate survey. Data from the FFRDC R&D Survey are available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdc/.

The full set of detailed tables from this survey will be available in the report Higher Education Research and Development: Fiscal Year 2011 at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/rdexpenditures/. Individual detailed tables from the 2011 survey may be available in advance of publication of the full report. For further information, please contact the author.

Notes

[1]  Ronda Britt, Research and Development Statistics Program, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230 (rbritt@nsf.gov; 703-292-7765).

[2]  For more details on the specific fields within each of these broad field categories, see pages 10–15 of the FY 2011 HERD Survey questionnaire, http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyherd/surveys/srvyherd_2011.pdf.

[3]  This amount includes only the spending that is accounted for within the institution's accounting systems. R&D performed by faculty at outside hospitals or clinics is not included unless the R&D project award was administered by the faculty's home institution.