Federal R&D Obligations Plummet in FY11
This month, the NSF released preliminary R&D spending numbers for the US federal government for fiscal year 2011 (FY11), ending September 30, 2011. The data suggest the substantial impact that the absence of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funding had on R&D spending in FY11 (see IBO 6/15/12) and general changes in R&D spending allocations and priorities. All FY09 and FY10 amounts used in this article include ARRA obligations.
Total R&D obligations, which include obligations for basic and applied research, development and R&D plant (R&D facilities and fixed equipment), declined 7.3% in FY11 to $130,241.4 million, after increasing 2.6% in FY10. Obligations are defined by the NSF as: “the amounts for orders placed, contracts awarded, services received, and similar transactions during a given period, regardless of when the funds were appropriated and when future payment of money is required.” Excluding R&D plant, federal R&D obligations fell 6.3% in FY11, compared with a 2.3% increase in FY10.
All categories of research obligations declined last fiscal year. Applied research obligations dropped 8.8% to $31,288.9 million, compared with a 7.7% increase in FY10. Development obligations declined 5.3% to $67,414.3 million, following a 2.2% increase in FY10. Basic research obligations declined yet again, with a 6.1% decline in FY11 and a 2.5% decrease in FY10. The most drastic change among the four research categories was obligations for R&D plant, which fell 39.7% last fiscal year to $2,454.8 million due to the end of ARRA funds. In FY10, R&D plant obligations increased 11.6%. In total, development, applied research, basic research and R&D plant accounted for 53%, 23%, 23% and 2% of FY11 federal R&D obligations, respectively.
R&D obligations also declined in FY11 for the major federal agencies engaged in R&D: the Department of Defense (-5.3%), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) (-13.6%) and the Department of Energy (DOE) (-7.1%). The table on this page lists nine federal agencies, offices or departments that are involved with R&D. The only entity in the table to sustain annual increases in R&D obligations for FY09 through FY11 was the FDA. However, FY11 R&D obligations excluding R&D plant increased 0.8% for the NSF and 1.7% for the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.
In FY11, extramural R&D obligations totaled $95,563.0 million, or 75% of all federal R&D obligations, excluding R&D plant obligations. This is an 8.2% decline from FY10. Industry, and universities and colleges performed 52% and 30% of extramural R&D obligations in FY11. As the graph above shows, federal R&D obligations for all seven of the largest external R&D performers fell last fiscal year. R&D obligations for universities and colleges plummeted 9.0% to $28,373.0 million. R&D obligations for all federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs) declined 4.7% to $9,998.0 million. For industry, federal obligations for basic research, applied research and development fell 3.6%, 12.3% and 7.4%, respectively. For universities and colleges, federal obligations for basic research, applied research and development dropped 6.8%, 10.9% and 19.7%, respectively.
Among the three science fields listed in the table below, federal basic and applied research obligations (excluding development and R&D plant) for life sciences were hardest hit in FY11, dropping 10.2%. For life sciences, basic research obligations fell 10.6% to $15,887.2 million and applied research obligations declined 9.9% to $14,931.1 million. The NIH accounted for 82% of FY11 federal life science research obligations. Universities and colleges performed 56% of federal life science research obligations, including 62% of NIH life science research obligations.
In fact, all three fields in the table have sustained annual declines or minor increases compared with double-digit growth in FY09. Federal research obligations for environmental sciences totaled $3,357.8 million last fiscal year. Basic research obligations for environmental sciences were up 3.8% to $1,772.8 million and applied research obligations rose 0.3% to $1,584.0 million. The NSF accounted for 48% of such research obligations and the NIH for 12%. Thirty-one percent of environmental sciences research obligations were performed by colleges and universities.
Federal research obligations for physical sciences were $4.028.6 million in FY11. The DOE represented 47% of such obligations and the NSF represented 25%. For physical sciences, basic research obligations rose 1.8% to $4,028.6 million, but applied research obligations decreased 3.1% to $1,738.5 million. Colleges and universities performed 34% of FY11 physical sciences research obligations.
Column Chart: Us Federal R&D Obligations
by Character of Work
Basic Rsch. Applied Rsch. Development
FY09 $32,877.90 $30,830.90 $69,640.20
FY10 (Prelim.) $32,051.60 $33,198.40 $71,176.00
FY11 (Prelim.) $30,083.40 $30,288.90 $67,414.30
Column Chart: Percentage Change in US Federal R&D
Obligations by FY (Excluding R&D Plant)
State and Local Other Nonprofit Industry FFRDCs Univ. & Colleges FFRDCs
FY09 0.2% 18.2% -1.6% 69.1%
FY10 (Prelim.) 1.2% 4.8% 4.2% 5.5%
FY11 (Prelim.) -7.2% -13.5% -3.9% -2.6%
Nonprofit FFRDCs Univ. & Colleges Industry
FY09 24.2% 21.3% -5.4%
FY10 (Prelim.) 5.3% -1.2% 1.6%
FY11 (Prelim.) -8.9% -9.0% -7.8%
Percentage Chg. in US Federal R&D Obligations
by FY (Including R&D Plant)
FY08– FY09– FY10–
FY09 FY10 FY11
(Prelim.) (Prelim.)
NIH (DHHS) 21.4% 3.9% -12.8%
NSF 53.7% -17.6% -2.8%
Agricultural Rsch. Svc.
(Dept. of Agriculture) 3.6% 16.8% -12.4%
Energy Effic. & Renew. Energy (DOE) 125.5% 11.6% -44.6%
Sci. & Tech. Direc. (DHS) -7.1% 21.3% -12.8%
NIST (Dept. of Comm.) 17.2% 64.1% -28.6%
EPA 3.9% -6.1% 1.5%
CDC (DHHS) -22.8% -2.3% -3.5%
FDA (DHHS) 19.7% 30.4% 10.0%
Chgs. in US Federal Basic & Applied Rsch. Obligations
Env. Sci. Life Sci. Phys. Sci.
FY09 25.7% 15.0% 14.8%
FY10 (Prelim.) -12.4% 3.2% -1.2%
FY11 (Prelim.) 2.1% -10.2% 0.3%
