R&D Expenditures Survey

Survey Materials

FY 1994 Cover Letter to Respondents

National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22230




Dear Colleague:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) requests your participation in its annualSurvey of Scientific and Engineering Expenditures at Universities and Colleges(R&D Expenditures Survey), Fiscal Year (FY) 1994. This national survey, one ofa series on academic science and engineering (S&E) resources, collects data oncurrent fund expenditures for separately budgeted research and development byS&E field and source of funds, and on current fund expenditures for relatedresearch equipment.

These data are solicited under the authority of the National Science FoundationAct of 1950, as amended, and are for statistical use only. Members ofCongress, Federal and State governmental planners, and officials in theacademic sector use the data to assess the adequacy of the Nation's researchbase. By contributing timely and accurate information to this survey, you canensure that your institution is represented in data used by thesedecisionmakers. You may also find the data useful to your own institution forinternal and/or peer analyses.

The survey covers U.S. institutions that currently have doctoral programs inS&E fields and/or annually perform at least $50,000 in separately budgetedresearch and development S&E activities. While participation is voluntary andfailure to respond will not have any adverse effect upon your institution, thereliability of the data and therefore the soundness of institutional, State,and national decisions based upon them are in large measure contingent uponreceipt of complete and accurate data from all surveyed institutions. Thesurvey questionnaire is due January 6, 1995.

This packet contains the following items:

Please let us know if your package is not complete.

Postcard

Please take a moment to let us know you have received this package bycompleting and mailing the enclosed postcard, giving the name and telephonenumber of the person responsible for completing the survey form.

FY 1994 Survey Questionnaire (NSF Form 411) with Instructions and NSF/NCES Crosswalk

The data items requested on the enclosed FY 1994 questionnaire are identical tothose requested for FY 1993. The Crosswalk shown on the last two pages of thequestionnaire maps NSF's fields of science and engineering to correspondingcodes defined by the Department of Education's National Center for EducationStatistics (NCES) in A Classification of Instructional Programs. Respondentswhose institution's records systems use the NCES classification should find theCrosswalk useful.

To help us monitor survey response burden, we ask you to estimate and reportthe number of hours you needed to complete the survey.

Optional Item 1 Survey Form

Optional item 1 is an alternative format for reporting data in item 1 (currentfund expenditures for separately budgeted R&D in the sciences and engineering,by source of funds) of the R&D Expenditures Survey. This format may becomepart of the survey questionnaire in FY 1995, but is optional this year. Item1A identifies the component elements of institutionally funded R&Dexpenditures. Item 1B requests the amounts of your total and Federal R&Dexpenditures that were passed through by your institution to subrecipients.

Please complete the optional item and return it with the survey questionnaire. All data reported by individual institutions on the optional item are STRICTLYCONFIDENTIAL. These data will not be published nor made available at any levelto the public; they will be used only for internal analyses.

Automated Survey Questionnaire

A diskette is enclosed containing the Automated Survey Questionnaire (ASQ),which provides you with a more convenient way to report your data. The ASQallows you to check your responses for both arithmetic and trend errors beforereturning your report to NSF. To use the automated questionnaire, you willneed an IBM PC or compatible computer system and DOS 3.0 or a more recentupgrade.

For More Information

An experimental Mosaic home page for the R&D Expenditures Survey is availablethrough the World Wide Web on the Internet. The page contains informationabout the survey and provides direct access to publications and data. To reachour home page, direct your browser to the following URL address: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/rdexpenditures/. We would be very interested in hearingyour comments or suggestions about the project.

If you prefer to submit your data electronically (either in a layout similar tothe questionnaire or using the ASQ format), please send e-mail tojlewis@qrc.com.

If you have questions about the survey or would like information about ourpublications or data, please call Marge Machen of NSF at (703) 306-1772 or JohnLewis of Quantum Research Corp. at (301) 657-3070.

Thank you for your efforts in providing timely and meaningful statistics toNSF.



John E. Jankowski, Jr., Program Director
Science and Engineering Activities Program
Division of Science Resources Studies


Enclosures

[ Cover Letter| FYI Flyer| Questions and Answers| Acknowledgement Postcard | Optional Item ]

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