U.S. R&D Increased 6.0% in 2006 According to NSF Projections

Current-dollar R&D conducted in the United States increased 6.0%, or $19.3 billion, in 2006 to a level of $342.9 billion, according to projections released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (table 1). In 2005, current-dollar R&D had increased 7.8%, or $23.5 billion, to $323.5 billion. Estimates for 2005 and 2006 are based on projections and survey data that are incomplete or subject to further revision.[1]

  Table 1 Source Data: Excel file

Real R&D

Real domestic research and development–expenditures on R&D adjusted to account for inflation–increased 3.5% in 2006 (table 2). In 2005, real R&D had increased by 5.0%. The increase in real R&D in 2006 primarily reflected growth in R&D performed by for-profit companies operating in the United States. R&D performed by federal agencies and in federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) declined in 2006.[2] R&D performed by universities and colleges and by nonprofit institutions both increased.

  Table 2 Source Data: Excel file

Funding for R&D

The largest sources of funding for R&D are the business sector and federal government. Together these two sectors funded 93.2% of the R&D performed in the United States in 2006 (figure 1). Real R&D funding from the business sector increased 4.9% in 2006, whereas real R&D funding from the federal government did not change significantly. The federal government's share of the nation's R&D funding peaked in 1964 at 66.8%. In 2006 it funded 28.2% of U.S. R&D. However, the federal government remains the primary source of funding for R&D performed at U.S. colleges and universities, funding 63.6% of academic R&D in 2006.

  Figure 1 Source Data: Excel file

Discrepancy in Federal R&D Funding

Data on federal funding for R&D reported here are based on surveys of organizations that conduct R&D, such as companies, universities, and FFRDCs. Federal funding for R&D based on data from these R&D performers differ substantially from the amount of R&D federal agencies report funding. The National Academies' Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) has recommended that NSF publish an annual reconciliation of estimates for federal R&D funding as reported by performers of R&D and as reported by federal agencies.

For FY 2006, federal agencies reported obligating $108.4 billion in total R&D to all R&D performers ($44.3 billion, or 41%, to industry), compared with $96.8 billion in federal funding reported by the performers of R&D. Although NSF has not found a definitive explanation for this divergence, CNSTAT notes that comparing federal outlays (as opposed to obligations) for R&D to performer expenditures results in a smaller discrepancy.

For FY 2006, federal agencies reported R&D outlays of $103.7 billion to all R&D performers. The difference in the federal R&D totals appears to be concentrated in the funding of industry R&D by the Department of Defense. See National Science Foundation (2005) for further discussion of these differences.

Data Notes

The U.S. R&D data presented here are derived by adding up the R&D performance for all sectors of the economy for which it can be reasonably estimated. Data from surveys that reference fiscal years (Survey of R&D Expenditures at Universities and Colleges and Survey of Federal Funds for R&D) are converted to a calendar year basis for the purpose of producing national R&D estimates. Preliminary estimates for 2005 and 2006 were derived for each data series using the following information or techniques:

• Federal intramural R&D, R&D performed by FFRDCs, and federally funded R&D performed by industry and nonprofit institutions were estimated using preliminary data reported by federal agencies on the FY 2004 Survey of Federal Funds for R&D, data from the federal R&D budget, and forecast economic growth rates.
  
  
• Industrial R&D funded by nonfederal sources was estimated using preliminary data reported by companies on the 2005 Survey of Industrial R&D.
  
  
• University and college R&D was estimated using time-series forecasting techniques (log damped trend exponential smoothing models).
  
  
• Nonprofit R&D funded by nonfederal sources was estimated using models based on the R&D trends of other sectors of the economy and historical data from the Survey of R&D Funding & Performance by Nonprofit Organizations.

The full set of detailed statistical tables from this survey will be available in the report, National Patterns of Research and Development Resources: 2006, at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/natlpatterns/. For further information contact

Brandon Shackelford
Research and Development Statistics Program
Division of Science Resources Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230
703-292-4685
bshackel@nsf.gov

 

References

Footnotes

[1]  The sources of data for sector-specific R&D performance are the following NSF surveys: Survey of Industrial R&D, Survey of R&D Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, Survey of Federal Funds for R&D, and Survey of R&D Funding & Performance by Nonprofit Organizations.

[2]  FFRDCs are R&D-performing organizations that are exclusively or substantially financed by the federal government either to meet particular R&D objectives or, in some instances, to provide major facilities at universities for research and associated training purposes. Each FFRDC is administered either by an industrial firm, a university, or a nonprofit institution.