Overview 
Survey Design
Survey Quality Measures
Trend Data
Availability of Data
Overview (2009 Survey Cycle) 
a. Purpose
The Survey of Federal Science and Engineering (S&E) Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions is an annual congressionally mandated survey that is the only source of comprehensive data on federal S&E funding to individual academic and nonprofit institutions. It is used by federal policymakers and others interested in S&E trends, including state and local government officials, university policy analysts, R&D managers, and nonprofit institution administrators. It is also used by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and several other federal agencies for internal administrative purposes. For example, NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) uses the information to target states receiving relatively low levels of federal R&D funding.
b. Respondents
The target population consists of the following 19 federal agencies; 12 are department-level federal agencies, and 7 are independent federal agencies.
- Department-level agencies:
- Independent agencies:
c. Key variables
Data are collected at the funding agency level and provided in aggregated form for more than 1,200 individual academic institutions. The survey provides data on federal funding by the following key variables:
- Category of support
- R&D
- Fellowships, traineeships, and training grants (FTTGs)
- R&D plant
- Facilities and equipment for instruction in S&E
- General support for S&E
- Other activities related to S&E
- Funding type
- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
- Non-ARRA
- Type of institution
- Federal agency providing support
- State
- Academic institution characteristics
- Highest degree granted
- Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
- Tribal institutions
- High-Hispanic-enrollment institutions
- Minority-serving institutions
- Type of control (public versus private)
Data are also collected at the funding agency level and provided in aggregated form for more than 1,400 nonprofit institutions. The survey provides data on federal funding by the following key variables:
Note that the variables in this survey use definitions for R&D and R&D plant that are comparable to those used by the Office of Management and Budget and the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development (Federal funds survey).
2. Survey Design
a. Target population and sample frame
The target population is all federal agencies that obligated money in FY 2009 to academic or nonprofit institutions or consortia for S&E research or the construction or maintenance of R&D facilities. Academic institutions are those institutions of higher education in the United States that offer at least 1 year of college-level study leading toward a degree. Nonprofit institutions are legal entities other than universities and colleges, privately organized or chartered to serve the public interest, and exempt from most forms of federal taxation. Consortia are organizations formed by the membership of a number of institutions from one or more types of performers (e.g., academic, nonprofit) in order to promote and support efforts to enhance knowledge in one or more disciplines.
The sample frame is derived from the federal agencies identified in the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development as providing R&D or R&D plant obligations to universities or nonprofit organizations.
b. Sample design
Two of the 12 federal departments were surveyed at the department level, and 10 were surveyed at the subdivision level. Of those 10 federal departments, 52 subdivisions were surveyed. All 7 independent agencies were surveyed at the agency level.
c. Data collection techniques
Synectics for Management Decisions (Synectics) performed the data collection for FY 2009 under contract with NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Synectics initially contacted the agencies by phone to verify the name, e-mail address, and phone number of each survey respondent. A Web-based data collection system is used to collect the federal S&E Support Survey data.
The Web data collection system is part of NSF's effort to enhance survey reporting and reduce data collection and processing costs by offering respondents direct online reporting and editing. Some agencies do not use the Web data collection system because they submit their data in alternative formats (e.g., ASCII, MS Excel spreadsheets).
Information was collected for the federal fiscal year 2009 (i.e., 1 October 2008 through 30 September 2009). Data collection began 1 July 2010, and agencies were given a requested due date of 30 September 2010. Data collection was extended until all of the surveyed agencies provided complete and final data, by March 2011. Data editing was performed using both manual reviews for obvious errors and automated data checks. The automated checks involved comparing current-year obligations by category of support against prior-year obligations. Problems were referred back to the agency submitting data, as appropriate.
d. Estimation techniques
This is a census of the 19 major federal agencies that obligate S&E funds for academic institutions and R&D and/or R&D plant funds for nonprofit institutions. There is no unit nonresponse or known item nonresponse, so no weighting or imputation techniques are used.
3. Survey Quality Measures
a. Sampling variability
Federal agencies in the target population are surveyed; there is no associated sampling error in the survey.
b. Coverage
The survey covers the federal agencies identified in the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development as providing R&D or R&D plant obligations to universities or nonprofit organizations. The survey does not cover all federal agencies. Occasionally, small amounts (less than $100,000) of R&D may be obligated to a university or college by an agency other than the ones listed above, and these amounts are not captured by this survey.
c. Nonresponse
1. Unit nonresponse—The response rate for this survey is 100%.
2. Item nonresponse—Agencies are encouraged to estimate information when actual data are unavailable. The survey instrument allows respondents to enter data or skip data fields. NSF assumes a blank field is zero for estimation purposes. If a significant number of blank fields are incorrectly skipped by respondents, bias could result.
d. Measurement
The major source of nonsampling error in this survey is measurement error. The survey instrument is complex, and agencies are not always able to provide the precise information requested. For example, federal agencies are not always able to identify which branch of a university receives funding from them. Thus, complete disaggregation by actual university may not be feasible for some universities.
Other problems include agency difficulties in matching program descriptions with the proper funding category (e.g., R&D, facilities and equipment for instruction) in the federal S&E support database. At least one agency has said that the "general support for S&E" and "other S&E" categories are a catchall for programs that do not fit anyplace else. (See the "Report on the NSF Federal S&E Support Survey Issues Workshop" held on 20 May 1999.)
4. Trend Data
The survey has been conducted annually since 1965. The initial survey elicited information about academic institutions only. Information on nonprofit organizations was added in 1968.
In some instances, prior-year data have been modified based on discrepancies noted during the consistency reviews of the data across years. To obtain accurate historical data, data users should use only the latest detailed statistical tables (FY 2009) and not data published earlier.
5. Availability of Data
a. Publications
NCSES publishes the data from this survey annually in both an InfoBrief and in detailed statistical tables in the series Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions. Data for major data elements are available starting with FY 1963. Data from this survey are also available in Academic Institutional Profiles (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/profiles/).
b. Electronic access
Data from this survey are available on the NCSES website at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/fedsupport/ and in the WebCASPAR data system (http://webcaspar.nsf.gov/).
c. Contact for more information
To obtain additional information about this survey, contact:
Michael Yamaner
Research and Development Statistics Program
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone: (703) 292-7815
Internet: myamaner@nsf.gov
