R&D spending by US universities declined 3.3% in fiscal year 2012 (FY12) in constant 2005 dollars to $34.6 billion—the first decline in 38 years. Adjusted for inflation, federal government academic R&D spending fell 1.6% to $40,130 million. However, excluding the federal government, R&D spending by US universities rose 4.7% to $25,644 million adjusted for inflation. These results are from the latest NSF Higher Education Research and Development Survey and indicate the effect of lower federal R&D spending for US academic R&D in FY12. Total R&D spending by US universities declined 1.0% in constant US dollars in FY12 to $56.8 billion. However, in current dollars, it rose 0.8% to $65,775 million.

The Survey is based on data from 907 US universities and colleges that grant bachelor or higher degrees and spent a minimum of $150,000 on R&D during the FY. For most of the institutions surveyed, the FY is considered the academic FY, which spanned July 2011 to June 2012. R&D personnel at the surveyed institutions totaled 916,822, of which 17% were principal investigators. The following figures are in current US dollars.

University R&D spending by the federal government accounted for 61% of total academic R&D spending in FY12. The figure includes $2.4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) expenditures (see IBO 2/28/09), which accounted for 6.1% of all federal R&D spending. ARRA-related spending declined roughly 42.9% from FY11.

University R&D spending by only one major federal research funding agency declined in FY12. R&D spending by the Department of Health and Human Services fell 4.7% to $40,130 million to make up 55% of all federal spending for university R&D. In contrast, university R&D spending by the USDA, DOE and NSF increased 8.7%, 4.6% and 2.6% to represent 3%, 5% and 13%, respectively, of all federal spending for university R&D. State and local government spending for university R&D declined 3.3% to $3,074 million.

Total non-government spending for university R&D increased 6.1% to $21.9 billion in FY12. Universities’ own spending for R&D rose the fastest among the six funding source shown in the pie chart below. Institutional spending increased 8.5%, followed by nonprofit organizations, which recorded a 4.6% increase in spending for university R&D. Business spending for university R&D grew 3.2%.

Despite these increases, university spending for the life sciences R&D declined 0.3% in FY12 to $37,215 million. University R&D spending for biological and medical sciences R&D declined 2.1% and 0.2% to represent 31% and 55%, respectively, of total life science R&D spending. However, spending for agricultural and “other life” sciences R&D grew 5.9% and 0.1% to make up 9% and 5%, respectively.

Physical sciences R&D spending by universities also declined last fiscal year, falling 1.3% to $4,721 million. Spending on chemistry, physics and other physical sciences R&D fell 1.9%, 5.9% and 8.3%, to account for 37%, 42% and 6%, respectively, of total physical sciences R&D spending by universities. In contrast, university spending for astronomy R&D rose 21.1% to make up 15%.

University spending for environmental sciences R&D inched up 0.4% to $3,173 million in FY12. “Other environmental science” and earth sciences R&D grew 3.9% and 2.4% to represent 16% and 37% of total university environmental sciences R&D spending, respectively. But university spending for oceanography and atmospheric sciences declined 2.7% and 1.0% to make up 32% and 15%, respectively.

The top 10 US universities in terms of FY12 R&D expenditures, as presented in the table below, is based on all R&D fields tracked by the NSF (computer sciences, environmental sciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences, psychology, social sciences, engineering, non-science and engineering). R&D spending by the top 10 institutions grew 1.2% to $11,630 million in FY12. R&D spending by the top 30 institutions increased 1.3% to $26,487 million to represent 40% of all FY12 academic R&D spending. Four of the top 10 universities and 12 of the top 30 universities reported spending declines in FY12. The number of universities with R&D spending of more than $1 billion increased from four in FY10 to eight.