by Ronda Britt[1]

Federal funding of higher education research and development declined in both current and constant dollars for the fourth straight year, according to data from the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation. When adjusted for inflation, federal funding for higher education R&D declined 1.7% between FY 2014 and FY 2015 and has fallen almost 13% since its peak in FY 2011 (figure 1). This decrease continues the longest multiyear decline in federal funding for academic R&D since the beginning of the annual data collection for this series in FY 1972.

NOTE: Because of rounding, detail may not add to total. Includes all institutions reporting at least $150,000 in R&D expenditures in the fiscal years shown. Prior to FY 2003, totals did not include R&D expenditures in non-science and engineering fields.

SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Higher Education Research and Development Survey.

Figure 1 Source Data: Excel file

Overall, universities reported current dollar R&D expenditures of $68.8 billion in FY 2015 (table 1), a 2.2% increase from the FY 2014 total of $67.4 billion. This total represents the reported total R&D expenditures of 906 degree-granting institutions that spent at least $150,000 in R&D in the previous fiscal year. The remainder of this InfoBrief will focus on the 640 institutions included in the full version of the HERD Survey (standard form) that reported at least $1 million in R&D during their previous fiscal year and that accounted for 99.8% of the total R&D expenditures reported for FY 2015. For more information, see “Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability.”

R&D Expenditures, by Source of Funding

In current dollars, federally funded R&D at universities declined 0.2% to $37.9 billion in FY 2015 (table 2). Since FY 2011, federally funded expenditures have dropped from 62.5% to 55.2% of total R&D expenditures.

Despite the overall decrease in federal dollars, universities reported increases in expenditures funded by three agencies in FY 2015: the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Department of Agriculture. The remaining major funding agencies all showed declines between FY 2014 and FY 2015. The largest source, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), decreased for the fourth straight year, from nearly $23 billion in FY 2011 to $20 billion in FY 2015.

All but one of the nonfederal funding sources increased from FY 2014 to FY 2015. The bulk of the increase came from an increase in universities’ own funding of R&D (institution funds), the largest source of nonfederal R&D funding. Institution funds grew 5.9% to $16.7 billion in FY 2015. This source has increased 32.5% between FY 2011 and FY 2015.

Expenditures funded by businesses rose 7.5% in FY 2015 to top $4 billion for the first time. Nonprofit-funded expenditures increased 6.9% to $4.2 billion in FY 2015. Expenditures funded by all other sources—such as foreign governments, other universities, or gifts designated by the donors for research—increased 6.4% to $2.0 billion in FY 2015. The one nonfederal source showing a decline, state and local government, decreased 1.2% to $3.8 billion, roughly equaling the amount reported in FY 2011.

R&D Expenditures, by Field

Higher education R&D is heavily concentrated in three fields, which together accounted for 64.3% of the total spent in FY 2015: medical sciences ($21.3 billion), biological sciences ($11.7 billion), and engineering ($11.1 billion) (table 3). Medical sciences showed modest growth between FY 2014 and FY 2015, increasing 3.1% in current dollars. Biological sciences essentially remained steady and engineering grew less than 1%.

Two science subfields, atmospheric sciences and astronomy, showed double-digit growth in FY 2015. Atmospheric sciences grew 14.7% to $576 million, and astronomy grew 18.7% to $673 million. Within engineering, aeronautical and astronautical engineering showed the most growth, increasing 10.9% to $734 million in FY 2015.

Two small non-science and engineering (non-S&E) fields also showed double-digit growth in R&D spending between FY 2014 and FY 2015, propelling the overall category of non-S&E R&D to a 5.7% increase. Research spending in business and management disciplines grew 18.2% to $571 million in FY 2015. Law research spending also grew 17.4%, to $175 million.

Top University Research Performers

The top 30 institutions in R&D spending in FY 2015 nearly mirrored the list in FY 2014 but with one change (table 4). The University of Texas, Austin claimed the number 30 spot with $651 million, an 11.3% increase from FY 2014. Vanderbilt University moved to number 31 with $648 million. In contrast to FY 2014, when 12 of the 30 institutions reported declines in their R&D spending from the prior year, only four reported declines for FY 2015. Combined, the top 30 institutions accounted for 41.3% of the total spent on R&D within the higher education sector in FY 2015.

External Funding by Type of Agreement

Of the research funding provided by outside sources, more than 75% comes in the form of grants, reimbursements or other agreements (figure 2). These are defined as agreements in which payments are received but no good or service other than periodic reporting is required in exchange; in other words, the conduct of the research is largely controlled by the institution. The remainder of the funding is received in the form of contracts, including both prime and subcontracts. These agreements are legal commitments for a good or service that benefits the sponsor, and the sponsor specifies the deliverables and gains rights to the results of the R&D.

SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Higher Education Research and Development Survey.

Figure 2 Source Data: Excel file

Since FY 2011, the amount of R&D spending funded by grants and other similar agreements has declined 10.1% in constant dollars, with the FY 2015 share dropping from 78.9% to 76.7%. In contrast, the amount funded by contracts has held relatively steady during the past 5 years.

Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability

The fiscal year referred to throughout this report is the academic fiscal year. For most institutions, FY 2015 represents 1 July 2014 through 30 June 2015. The higher education R&D expenditures data were collected from a census of 906 universities and colleges that grant a bachelor’s degree or higher and expended at least $150,000 in R&D in FY 2015. To reduce respondent burden, the HERD Survey was revised beginning in FY 2012 to request abbreviated data from institutions reporting less than $1 million in R&D expenditures during the previous fiscal year. Except for figure 1 and table 1, the totals shown in this InfoBrief do not include expenditures reported by 266 institutions that completed this short-form version of the survey in FY 2015. These institutions accounted for $140 million (0.2% of total) of higher education R&D expenditures in FY 2015.

The amounts reported include all funds expended for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes and sponsored by an outside organization or separately accounted for using institution funds. R&D expenditures at university-administered federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are collected in a separate survey, the FFRDC R&D Survey, and these data are available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdc/.

The full set of data tables from this survey is available at http://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/herd/2015/.

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).