Three agencies account for almost 80 percent of the 1993 intramural lab effort: DOD labs performed half of this federal total;(Click here for footnote 83.) about 15 percent each was undertaken in NASA and HHS (primarily NIH) labs. Three agencies also account for most (95 percent) FFRDC support. DOD and DOE provide most of the funding for FFRDCs administered by firms and nonprofit organizations: These two agencies, along with NASA, provide most of the university-administered FFRDC R& D funds. This high concentration in the federal labs R& D effort has been maintained over time. (For longitudinal data on intramural R& D, see appendix table 4-13; on FFRDCs, see see appendix table 4-14.)
About half of the money going to all federal labs is for nondefense programs. Nondefense lab performance includes funding for several agencies with a long track record in cooperating with private industry. For example, NASA devotes about 10 percent of its R& D to aeronautics research (SRS 1993b), which by statute is closely aligned to the interests of the commercial aircraft industry. Approximately 40 percent of the NIH research budget is applied and supports programs of interest to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries (OTA 1993). Moreover--as is borne out by technology transfer metrics (see "Technology Transfer and Commercialization")--USDA labs have long undertaken research programs of interest to private agriculture, and the central mission of the growing NIST labs' budgets is to serve industry needs.
The remaining half of the federal total is for defense labs, including much of the R& D in DOE's national weapons laboratories--Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos. It is these labs that are facing the challenge to find alternative activities in light of expected reductions in defense R& D support. Up until recently, DOD and DOE labs have focused R& D efforts on their defense missions. Little attention was given to technology transfer activities. However, with no new nuclear weapons now planned and with the defense drawdown continuing, defense labs have turned increasingly toward nondefense research subjects including environmental technologies and the development of new products for industry. Indeed, technology transfer is now identified as a core mission activity of the Department of Energy. Systematically compiled data on defense/nondefense resources allocations, however, are not easily obtained.
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