Even excluding American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding, US university spending on R&D continued to grow in fiscal year 2011 (FY11) (ending June 30, 2011). Without ARRA funding, university spending on R&D would have grown 4.0% to $60.9 billion, according to the NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. Including ARRA funds, university spending on R&D grew 6.3% to $65.1 billion. The survey gathered data from 912 universities. In FY10, 742 universities responded to the HERD Survey. Adjusted for inflation, FY11 spending increased 4.3%. The figures below are in current dollars.

Federal government spending for university R&D, including ARRA funds, grew the fastest among R&D funding sources in FY11 at 8.8% to reach $40.8 billion. In FY10, federal government spending, including ARRA funds, grew 6.9% to $37.8 billion. ARRA funding, which is projected to contribute to HERD figures through FY13 due to projects spanning several years, was responsible for 10% of federal university R&D spending and 7% of total R&D spending at universities in FY11. ARRA funds were responsible for an average of 6.4% and as much as 14% of a university’s R&D funding. Excluding ARRA sources, R&D spending by the federal government grew 5.1% to $36.6 billion. Nearly half of university R&D funding for life science, environmental science and physical science was supplied by the federal government.

The second largest increase in university R&D spending in FY11 came from universities themselves. University spending on R&D grew 4.8% in FY11 to $12.4 billion. However, growth slowed, as university spending grew 6.1% in FY10. University R&D spending by nonprofits was also up last fiscal year, growing 2.8%. Spending by “other” sources was flat at $1.0 billion.

In contrast, university R&D spending by state and local governments and by business both declined in FY11. State and local government expenditures declined 0.9% after rising 5.6% in FY10. Business spending declined even more, falling 1.3%, following a 0.3% increase the previous year.

The majority of university spending on R&D was for the life sciences, which received $34.9 billion, or 57% of university R&D funds, in FY11. University life science R&D expenditures grew 6.6% in FY11, after increasing 6.5% in FY10. Within the life sciences, medical science spending grew 5.7% to account for 55% of life science spending. However, spending on medical science did not grow as quickly as spending on “other” life sciences or biological sciences, for which spending increased 10.6% and 8.1% to represent 32% and 5% of life science spending. Agricultural science spending rose 10.6% to make up 8%.

University R&D for the physical sciences increased 3.5% to comprise $4.6 billion, or 7% of all university R&D spending in FY11, although growth slowed from 11.3% in the prior year. By subfield, physics spending grew the fastest at 5.7% to make up 44% of physical sciences spending. Astronomy and chemistry spending grew more modestly, at 3.5% and 2.2%, to account for 12% and 37%, respectively, of physical sciences spending. “Other” physical sciences spending rose 0.3%.

Growth of environmental science R&D spending at universities accelerated as well, increasing 5.8% last fiscal year to account for $3.0 billion, or 5% of spending, compared with a 1.8% increase in FY10. The majority of spending in this field was for earth science and oceanography, for which spending increased 5.3% and 2.6% to represent 36% and 33% of environmental science spending, respectively. However, spending for atmospheric sciences increased the fastest at 12.1% to account for 15% of environmental science spending. “Other” environmental science spending increased 8.6%.

In FY11, there was not much change in the rankings of the 30 universities with the largest R&D expenditures. Most of the universities in the top 30 maintained their positions from FY10, but the Georgia Institute of Technology fell to number 26 from number 25, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center entered the list at number 24. The largest increase in university R&D spending in FY11 was at the University of Washington, Seattle, where it grew 12.3%, enabling the institution to overtake the number 3 spot from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Duke University and the University of California, San Diego, increased R&D expenditures 4.0% and 7.0%, respectively, bringing the number of universities that spend more than $1 billion on R&D to six. Spending at the top 10 universities grew 7.3% to account for 18% of university R&D spending in FY11. Medical schools received 36% of all university R&D spending. Four of the top 10 universities (Duke University; University of California, San Francisco; University of Pittsburgh; and University of Washington, Seattle) spent more than 70% of R&D funds on their medical schools.

 Column Chart: FY11 R&D Spending at Universities by Source

             Total University R&D Expenditures       Federal Govt. University R&D Expenditures

 Life Sci.   $37,232                                 $23,680 

 Env. Sci.    $3,167                                  $2,188 

 Phys. Sci.   $4,779                                  $3,538

 Column Chart: FY09–FY11 Life Science R&D Expenditure Growth at US Universities (Millions)

                         2009      2010       2011

 Medical Science       $18362    $19265     $20356

 Biological Science    $10165    $10917     $11802

 Agricultural Science   $2951     $2984      $3129

 Other Life Science     $1311     $1758      $1945

 Pie Chart: Share of US University R&D Spending by Source in FY11

 Fed. Govt.         63%

 State/Local Govt.   6%

 Top 10 US Universities by R&D Expenditure in FY11

 University                             FY11($M)     % Chg.

 Johns Hopkins University                 $2,145      7.0%

 Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor             $1,279      8.0%

 Univ. of Washington, Seattle             $1,149     12.3%

 Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison              $1,112      8.1%

 Duke University                          $1,022      4.0%

 Univ. of California, San Diego           $1,009      7.0%

 Univ. of California, San Francisco         $995      6.3%

 Univ. of California, Los Angeles           $982      4.8%

 Stanford University                        $908      8.1%

 Univ. of Pittsburgh, main campus           $899      9.4%