During the period February 2004 through February 2005, a total of 30 federal agencies and their subdivisions—89 individual respondents—submitted data in response to the National Science Foundation (NSF) annual Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development (federal funds survey), which was distributed in February 2004. The agencies reported their data as obligations and outlays incurred or expected to be incurred, regardless of when the funds were appropriated or whether they were identified in respondents' budgets specifically for research and development (R&D) activities.
Only those agencies that had obligations in the variables represented by a particular table appear in that table. Appendix C provides a complete list of the federal agencies that have been included in the federal funds survey. Additional notes associated with these agencies are provided in appendix B.
Definitions are essentially unchanged from those used in past federal funds surveys.
Obligations and outlays reported are consistent with figures shown for FY 2003, 2004, and 2005 appearing in The Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2005. The R&D data that agencies submit to the Office of Management and Budget and to the Federal Funds survey are based on the same definitions and are reconcilable.
The data include all federal funds available to an agency that the agency received or expects to receive from direct appropriations, trust funds, special account receipts, corporate income, or other sources, including funds appropriated to the President.
The amounts shown for each year reflect obligations or outlays for that year regardless of when the funds were originally authorized or received and regardless of whether they were appropriated, received, or identified in the agency's budget specifically for research, development, or R&D plant.
In reporting its obligations or outlays, each agency includes the amounts transferred to other agencies for support of R&D. The receiving agencies do not report funds transferred to them. Similarly, a subdivision of an agency that transfers funds to another subdivision within that agency reports such obligations or outlays as its own.
Obligations and outlays for R&D performed for an agency in foreign countries include all funds available to the agency for this purpose, including funds separately appropriated for special foreign-currency programs.
Funds reported for R&D reflect full-cost coverage, which is the costs of specific R&D and the applicable overhead costs. The amounts reported include the costs of planning and administering R&D programs, laboratory overhead, pay of military personnel, and departmental administration.
Basic research is defined as systematic study directed toward fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind.
Applied research is defined as systematic study to gain knowledge or understanding necessary to determine the means by which a recognized and specific need may be met.
To better differentiate between the part of the federal R&D budget that supports science and key enabling technologies (including technologies for military and nondefense applications) and the part that primarily supports testing and evaluation (mostly of defense-related systems), NSF now collects from the Department of Defense (DOD) development dollars in two categories: advanced technology development and major systems development.
DOD uses service codes 6.1 through 6.7 to classify data into the survey categories. Within DOD's research categories, basic research is classified as 6.1, and applied research is classified as 6.2. Within DOD's development categories, advanced technology development is classified as 6.3A. Major systems development is classified as 6.3B through 6.7 and includes demonstration and validation, engineering and manufacturing development, management and support, and operational system development.
The illustrative disciplines are intended to be guidelines, not sharp definitions; they represent examples of disciplines generally classified under each detailed field. A discipline under one detailed field may be classified under another detailed field when the major emphasis is elsewhere. Research in biochemistry, for example, might be reported as biological, agricultural, or medical, depending on the focus of the project. Human biochemistry would be classified under biological, but animal biochemistry or plant biochemistry would fall under agricultural. In no case is the research reported under more than one field. No double counting is intended or allowed.
Atmospheric sciences: aeronomy, extraterrestrial atmospheres, meteorology, solar science, weather modification
Geological sciences: engineering geophysics, general geology, geodesy and gravity, geomagnetism, hydrology, inorganic geochemistry, isotopic geochemistry, laboratory geophysics, organic geochemistry, paleomagnetism, paleontology, physical geography and cartography, seismology
Oceanography: biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, marine geophysics, physical oceanography
Environmental sciences nec
Agricultural sciences: agronomy, animal sciences, food science and technology, fish and wildlife, forestry, horticulture, phytopathology, phytoproduction, plant sciences, soils and soil science, general agriculture, other agriculture nec
Biological sciences (excluding environmental biology): anatomy, biochemistry, biology, biometry and biostatistics, biophysics, botany, cell biology, entomology and parasitology, genetics, microbiology, neuroscience (biological), nutrition, physiology, zoology, other biological sciences nec
Environmental biology: ecosystem sciences, evolutionary biology, limnology, physiological ecology, population and biotic community ecology, population biology, systematics, other environmental biology nec
Medical sciences: dentistry, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, pathology, pediatrics, pharmacology, pharmacy, preventive medicine, psychiatry, radiology, surgery, veterinary medicine, other medical sciences nec
Life sciences nec
Mathematics: algebra, analysis, applied mathematics, foundations and logic, geometry, numerical analysis, statistics, topology
Computer sciences: computer and information sciences (general); design, development, and application of computer capabilities to data storage and manipulation; information sciences and systems; programming languages; systems analysis
Mathematics and computer sciences nec
Astronomy: laboratory astrophysics; optical astronomy; radio astronomy; theoretical astrophysics; x-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino astronomy
Chemistry: inorganic, organic, organometallic, and physical chemistry
Physics: acoustics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed-matter physics, elementary particle physics, nuclear structure, optics, plasma physics
Physical sciences nec
Biological aspects: animal behavior, clinical psychology, comparative psychology, ethology, and experimental psychology
Social aspects: development and personality; educational, personnel, and vocational psychology and testing; industrial and engineering psychology; social psychology
Psychological sciences nec
Anthropology: applied anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology and personality, social anthropology and ethnology
Economics: econometrics and economic statistics; economic systems and development; economic theory; history of economic thought; industrial, labor, and agricultural economics; international economics; macroeconomics; microeconomics; public finance and fiscal policy
Political science: area or regional studies, comparative government, history of political ideas, international relations and law, national political and legal systems, political theory, public administration
Sociology: comparative and historical sociology, complex organizations, culture and social structure, demography, group interactions, social problems and social welfare, sociological theory
Social sciences nec: linguistics, research in education, research in history, research in law (e.g., attempts to assess impact on society of legal systems and practices), socioeconomic geography
Aeronautical engineering: aerodynamics
Astronautical engineering: aerospace, space technology
Chemical engineering: petroleum, petroleum refining process
Civil engineering: architectural, environmental, hydraulic, hydrologic, marine, sanitary, and structural engineering; transportation
Electrical engineering: communication, electronic engineering, power
Mechanical engineering: engineering mechanics
Metallurgy and materials engineering: ceramic engineering, mining, textile engineering, welding
Engineering nec: agricultural engineering, bioengineering, biomedical engineering, industrial and management engineering, nuclear engineering, ocean engineering, systems engineering
Intramural activities cover not only actual intramural R&D performance but also the costs associated with planning and administration of both intramural and extramural programs by federal personnel. Intramural activities also include the costs of supplies and off-the-shelf equipment (equipment that has gone beyond the development or prototype stage) procured for use in intramural R&D. For example, an operational launch vehicle purchased from an extramural source by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and used for intramural performance of R&D, is reported as a part of the cost of intramural R&D.
In general, organizations included in the FFRDC category meet all the following criteria:
Geographic distribution of Department of Defense development funding to industry reflects only the location of prime contractors, not the location of numerous subcontractors who perform most of the R&D.
While completing the survey each year, agency respondents make revisions to their estimates for the latest 2 years of the previous report, in this case FY 2003 and 2004. Such revision is part of the budgetary cycle. From time to time, survey submissions also reflect reappraisals and revisions in classification of various aspects of agencies' R&D programs. When such revisions occur, NSF requests that the agencies provide revised prior-year data to maintain consistency and comparability with the most recent R&D concepts.
The scope of the federal funds survey has changed over time, and the survey instrument has been revised accordingly. The most recent changes are described in the following paragraphs.
Since the Volume 40 (FY 1990–92) survey cycle, DOD has reported research obligations and development obligations separately. Tables reporting obligations for research, by state and performer, and obligations for development, by state and performer, were specifically created for DOD. The additional detail provided by DOD highlights the following circumstances that are specific to DOD:
DOD funds the preponderance of federal development.
DOD development funded at institutions of higher education is typically performed at university-affiliated nonacademic laboratories. These are separate from the universities' academic departments, where university research is typically performed.
During the Volume 44 (FY 1994–96) survey cycle, the Director for Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) at DOD requested that NSF further clarify the true character of DOD's R&D program, particularly as it compares with other federal agencies, by adding more detail to development obligations reported by DOD respondents. Specifically, DOD requested that NSF allow DOD agencies to report development obligations in two separate categories, advanced technology development and major systems development.
The reasoning behind DDR&E's request for the additional development categories is best explained by the following excerpt from a letter written by Robert V. Tuohy, Chief, Program Analysis and Integration at DDR&E, to John E. Jankowski, Program Director, Research and Development Statistics Program, SRS:
The DOD's R&D program is divided into two major pieces, Science and Technology (S&T) and Major Systems Development. The other federal agencies' entire R&D programs are equivalent in nature to DOD's S&T program, with the exception of the Department of Energy and possibly NASA. Comparing those other agency programs to DOD's program, including the development of weapons systems such as F-22 Fighter and the New Attack Submarine, is misleading.
At several annual issues workshops held during FY 1992–96, NSF learned from survey respondents that reliable data for certain survey items were difficult to obtain and report. As a result, NSF began to consider removing certain items from the federal funds survey instrument. The Volume 42 Detailed Statistical Tables publication was distributed with a flier notifying data users that NSF was considering eliminating several items from future volumes of the document. Data users were asked to review the list of affected tables shown on the flier and comment on the proposed eliminations to NSF.
Before publication of Volume 43 (FY 1993–95) of the detailed statistical tables, NSF removed from the document 54 tables that provided data on two of the items slated for elimination: the special foreign currency program and detailed field of science and engineering (S&E) for estimated outyears. NSF continued to collect data from federal agencies for these two items through Volume 45, but eliminated the lines on the survey instrument for these items beginning with the Volume 46 (FY 1996–98) survey cycle. A special flier was included in the Volume 46 packet mailing that listed the data items that were no longer required.
NSF also removed two tables depicting data on foreign performers by region, country, and agency before publication of Volume 43 of the detailed statistical tables. These tables were reinstated with Volume 46.
Before the Volume 48 survey cycle, the Division of Science Resources Statistics at NSF updated the list of foreign performers in the federal funds survey to match the list of countries and territories in the 1996 UNESCO Statistical Yearbook.
On 25 November 2002, President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, establishing the Department of Homeland Security.
Funds for R&D were reported on a 3-year basis comparable with the 2005 federal budget, upon which the data were based. The amounts reported for each year are the obligations or outlays incurred in that year, regardless of when funds were authorized or received by an agency and regardless of whether the funds were identified in the agency's budget specifically for research, development, R&D plant, or some combination of the three. The respondents reconciled the data reported to the federal funds survey with the amounts for R&D they reported under Max Schedule C to the Office of Management and Budget for the President's 2005 budget.
NSF was not able to include Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data in any of the tables for this survey cycle because DHS was unable to determine adequate estimates for its R&D as categorized in this report. DHS was able to provide some overall obligations for R&D for the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Secret Service, and preliminary appropriations for the Science and Technology Directorate, as shown below. Amounts are in millions of dollars.
|
Some agencies are not able to report the full costs of R&D. For example, the headquarters costs of planning and administering R&D programs of DOD (estimated at a fraction of 1 percent of the agency's R&D total) are excluded, because this agency has stated that identification of the amounts is impracticable.
R&D plant data are also underreported to some extent because of the difficulty encountered by some agencies, particularly DOD and NASA, in identifying and reporting these data. DOD's respondents report obligations for the R&D plant funded under the agency's construction appropriation, but they are able to identify only a small portion of the R&D plant support that is within R&D contracts funded from DOD's appropriation for research, development, testing, and evaluation. Similarly, NASA respondents cannot separately identify the portions of industrial R&D contracts that apply to R&D plant; R&D plant data are subsumed in the R&D data covering industrial performance. NASA R&D plant data for other performing sectors are reported separately.
In FY 2000, NASA reclassified space station as a physical asset and space station research as equipment, and it transferred funding for the program from R&D to R&D plant. Also in FY 2000, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) classified all of its development activities as research. For more information on the classification changes at NASA and NIH, refer to the InfoBrief "Classification Revisions Reduced Reported Federal Development Obligations," NSF 02-309, February 2002, available on the Web at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf02309/.