CRA Bulletin

Industrial funding for R&D in science and engineering (S&E) fields at universities and colleges dropped 2.6% in FY2004, to $2.1 billion. This was the third year in a row that industry funding declined, having dropped 1.1% in 2003 and 1.5% in 2002. According to the NSF InfoBrief, “the industrial sector is the first source of academic R&D funding to show a multiyear decline since the survey began, in FY 1953.”

As a result, industry funded 4.9% of academic R&D in FY2004, compared to 7.4% in FY1999.

Other interesting data in the report:

R&D expenditures in the computer sciences increased 7.7% in current dollars, to $1.4 billion, and represented 3.3% of total academic R&D expenditures in S&E.

The NSF (44%, $411 million) and Department of Defense (32%, $303 million) were the two largest sources of funds for CS.

Adjusting for inflation, academic R&D in S&E rose 4.7% in FY2004.

51% of R&D expenditures were in the medical (32.7%) and biological (18.3%) sciences.

75% of R&D expenditures were for basic research.

The top 20 institutions in terms of expenditures accounted for 30% of total academic R&D spending, and the top 100 research performers accounted for 80% of spending.

The federal government provided 64% ($26.4 billion) of R&D funding for universities and colleges. While federal funding for academic R&D increased 10.6% in current dollars in FY2004, it had increased by over 13% in each of the previous two years.

The Department of Health and Human Services provided most (51%, $14 billion) of the federal funding for R&D expenditures in S&E, followed by the NSF (11.8%, $3.2 billion).

About $1.6 billion was spent on non-S&E R&D at universities and colleges.

Industrial Funding of Academic R&D Continues to Decline in FY 2004 is online at
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06315/