by Michael Yamaner[1]

Funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) increased current-dollar federal obligations to academic institutions for science and engineering (S&E) activities by $5.9 billion in FY 2009. ARRA funding accounted for 16.2% of the $36.2 billion obligated to 1,447 academic institutions. This total represents a 27.2% increase in current dollars over FY 2008.

Total inflation-adjusted (or constant) federal obligations rose to $32.8 billion between FY 2008 and FY 2009. Excluding the funding provided by ARRA, federal support for science and engineering to academic institutions increased by $1.4 billion (5.2%) over the same time period. This is the only constant-dollar increase in obligations between FY 2005 and FY 2009 (table 1).

  Table 1 Source Data: Excel file

These data are the most recent statistics from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions.

Categories of Academic S&E Support

Federal academic S&E obligations include six categories: research and development (88%–90% annually of total federal academic S&E obligations over the past 5 years); R&D plant; facilities and equipment for instruction in S&E; fellowships, traineeships, and training grants (FTTGs); general support for S&E; and other S&E activities (table 1).

Federal academic R&D obligations reached $32.4 billion in FY 2009 with $5.2 billion coming from ARRA funds, a 27.2% current-dollar increase (25.6% in constant dollars) over the prior year. Excluding ARRA funding, federal academic R&D obligations showed a 6.8% increase over FY 2008 in current dollars (5.4% in constant dollars). Federal obligations for general support for S&E fell by 19.3% in current dollars between FY 2008 and FY 2009 to $242 million (table 1).

Each of the four remaining S&E categories showed increased current-dollar funding levels in FY 2009 compared with FY 2008. The largest gain was $515 million (187.3%) in funding for R&D plant projects, of which most—$404 million (78.4%)—was from ARRA funds (table 1).

Agency Sources for Academic S&E Support

Collectively, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NSF, and the Department of Defense (DOD) provided 86.5% of all federal and 90.2% of ARRA-funded academic S&E obligations in FY 2009. Of these agencies, HHS accounted for 58.8% of all federal and 53.8% of ARRA-funded obligations (current dollars); NSF, 18.9% of all federal and 36.3% of ARRA-funded obligations; and DOD, 8.8% of all federal and 0.1% of ARRA-funded obligations. The Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration provided most of the remaining academic S&E total (10.3% of all federal and 8.8% of ARRA-funded obligations). Even without the additional funds provided by ARRA, all six agencies showed increased constant-dollar levels for academic S&E in FY 2009 (table 2).

  Table 2 Source Data: Excel file

University Shares of Academic S&E Support

The Johns Hopkins University (including its Applied Physics Laboratory) continued to be the leading academic recipient of federal S&E obligations: $1.6 billion in FY 2009. Together HHS and DOD provided Johns Hopkins with 83.3% of its federal S&E funds. The leading 20 universities, ranked in terms of federal academic S&E obligations, accounted for 34.4% of this FY 2009 federal total (including ARRA). Nineteen of these institutions were also ranked among the top 20 recipients in FY 2008. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's rank fell from 17 to 21 in FY 2009 and the University of Colorado all campuses' rank rose from 21 to 19 (table 3).

  Table 3 Source Data: Excel file

Federal S&E Support to Nonprofit Institutions

NSF collects statistics on federal obligations to independent nonprofit institutions for two of the six S&E categories—R&D and R&D plant. During FY 2009 federal agencies obligated $8.3 billion to 1,459 nonprofit institutions, an increase of 28.6% over the $6.5 billion reported in FY 2008 (current dollars). ARRA funds accounted for $966.3 million, or 11.6%, of the FY 2009 total. The main source of the increase in funding (78.3%) was HHS. Massachusetts General Hospital received the most federal R&D and R&D plant funds ($383 million) among nonprofits in FY 2009, with HHS providing 94.4% of this funding (table 4).

  Table 4 Source Data: Excel file

In FY 2009 the 10 leading nonprofit institutions in terms of these federal funds received 30.3% of the total funding to all nonprofits. Six of these recipients were hospitals or medical research institutes. Nine of these leading 10 nonprofits in FY 2009 also ranked among the top 10 in the prior year. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (ranked 8th in FY 2009 and 12th in FY 2008) moved into the top 10, and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (ranked 11th in FY 2009 and 7th in FY 2008) fell out of the top 10 (table 4).

Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability

Gross domestic product implicit price deflators were used to convert current to constant dollars in this report. The data on federal S&E obligations to academic and nonprofit institutionspresented here were obtained from 19 agencies that responded to the FY 2009 Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions. The survey collects federal S&E support data by funding agency, institution, type of activity, type of institution, and geographic location.

The six funding categories of federal S&E support are defined as follows.

• Research and development includes all direct, indirect, incidental, or related costs resulting from or necessary to perform R&D by private individuals and organizations under grant, contract, or cooperative agreement.
• R&D plant includes all projects whose principal purpose is to provide support for construction, acquisition, renovation, modification, repair, or rental of facilities, land, works, or fixed equipment for use in scientific or engineering R&D.
• Facilities and equipment for S&E instruction includes all programs whose principal purpose is to provide support for construction, acquisition, renovation, modification, repair, or rental of facilities, land, works, or equipment for use in instruction in S&E.
• Fellowships, traineeships, and training grants includes all fellowship, traineeship, and training grant programs that are directed primarily toward the development and maintenance of the scientific workforce.
• General support for S&E is funds used for scientific projects and support for activities within a specified discipline; explicit purpose is not specified.
• Other S&E activities includes all academic S&E obligations that cannot be assigned elsewhere and activities in support of technical conferences, teacher institutes, and programs aimed at increasing precollege and undergraduate students' scientific knowledge.

The full set of detailed statistical tables on the FY 2009 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 may be available in advance of the full report. For more information, please contact the author.

Notes

[1]  Michael Yamaner, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230 (myamaner@nsf.gov; 703-292-7815).