Federal R&D Obligations to Universities and Colleges Totaled $25 Billion in FY 2007

by Richard J. Bennof[1]

The most recent statistics from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions show that federal agencies obligated a new current-dollar high ($25.4 billion) to academic institutions for science and engineering (S&E) research and development (R&D) programs in FY 2007. The slight current-dollar increase (0.2%), though, resulted in a 2.4% decrease in constant 2000 dollars from the prior-year level. For all FY 2007 R&D recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) supplied 64.0% of the total; NSF's proportion was 12.9%; and the Department of Defense’s support was 12.1%.

In FY 2007, federal R&D obligations to the top 100 institutions totaled $21.0 billion, or 82.6%, of the total. In FY 2006, the top 100 academic R&D institutions received $20.7 billion, or a slightly smaller 81.6% share of the R&D total.

Of those academic institutions that were in the leading 100 of all academic R&D recipients in FY 2007 (table 1), fully 95 were among the top 100 recipients in FY 2006. The five universities ranked in the FY 2007 top 100 but not ranked in the top 100 for FY 2006 were Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Utah State University, University of Georgia, and the University of Central Florida. The five academic institutions that fell out of the FY 2007 top 100 were New Mexico State University all campuses, Tulane University, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and the University of South Florida.

  Table 1 Source Data: Excel file

The full set of detailed statistical tables on the FY 2007 Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions will be available online at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/fedsupport/. Individual tables from the 2007 survey may be available in advance of the full report. For more information, contact the author.

Note

[1]  Richard J. Bennof, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Research and Development Statistics Program, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230 (rbennof@nsf.gov; 703-292-7783).