Spending on Science and Engineering (S&E) R&D at US universities and colleges increased 4.8% last fiscal year (ended September 30, 2008) to $51,909 million, according to the latest figures from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Adjusted for inflation, academic S&E R&D spending rose 2.3%. Funding for basic research grew 4.1% to $39,408 million. Applied R&D funding grew 6.7% to $12,501 million. The data are based on an NSF survey of 690 S&E degree-granting universities and colleges, each of which had annual S&E R&D spending of at least $150,000.

As the graph above illustrates, the federal government accounted for nearly 60% of S&E R&D expenditures at US universities last year. Surprisingly, state and local governments‘ spending for S&E R&D at universities grew the fastest in fiscal 2008, rising 8.7%. R&D funding from industry and from the universities’ own funds rose 7.1% and 7.0%, respectively. S&E R&D funding for universities from all non-federal sources increased a healthy 8.3%.

In contrast, federal funding for S&E R&D at universities increased 2.5% last fiscal year; a negligible 0.2% when adjusted for inflation. The Life Sciences represented 60% of the total federal investment in academic S&E R&D in fiscal 2008. The pie chart below shows federal S&E R&D funding last fiscal year among the four Life Sciences categories designated by the NSF.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), which includes the National Institutes of Health, accounted for 83% of federal Life Sciences R&D funding for universities in fiscal 2008. In fact, 89% of DHHS’s fiscal 2008 S&E R&D funding for universities went to the Life Sciences. The Medical Sciences received 56% of these expenditures, while the Biological Sciences received 29%.

Engineering, the Physical Sciences and the Environmental Sciences represented 15%, 9% and 6% of total federal S&E R&D spending for universities in fiscal 2008. For the Environmental Sciences, the top-funding federal agency was the NSF, which provided 34% of the field’s federal funding for academic S&E R&D. The NSF was also the leading source of S&E R&D funds for the Physical Sciences at universities, providing 29%, of such expenditures.

The Life Sciences were also the largest recipient of S&E R&D funding for universities from all sources in fiscal year 2008, accounting for 60% of this funding. The pie chart below shows the share of S&E R&D funding for universities in fiscal 2008 from all funding sources for all S&E fields (Other includes Computer Science, Psychology, Social Sciences and Engineering). The Medical Sciences received 55%, or $17,271 million, of total academic Life Sciences S&E R&D funding from all sources. The Biological Sciences received 31%. However, academic S&E R&D expenditures for the Biological Sciences grew the fastest. The graph at the bottom of the page compares fiscal 2008 S&E R&D expenditures by universities for all fields.

In fiscal 2008, the top 20 US universities for S&E R&D spending accounted for 30% of total academic S&E R&D spending in the US. However, John Hopkins University was the only university to top $1 billion in S&E R&D spending at $1,681 million. The University of California San Francisco, the University of Wisconsin Madison, all campuses of the University of Minnesota, and the University of California Los Angeles rounded out the top 5. Among the top 20 universities, S&E R&D spending grew the fastest at the University of Minnesota (9.5%), the University of Pennsylvania (9.3%), the University of Michigan (8.3%) and John Hopkins University (8.2%).

Chart: S&E R&D Expenditures at US Universities by Source, FY08

Federal Govt. 31,231

“State and Local Gov.” 3,418

Industry 2,870

Institutional Funds 10,435

Other 3,954

Chart: Federal Life Sciences S&E R&D Expenditures at US Universities by Field, FY08

Agricultural Sci. 864

Biological Sci. 6,358

Medical Sci. 10,757

Life Sci. Other 685

Chart: S&E R&D Expenditures at US Universities by Field, FY08

Environmental Sci. 2,800

Agricultural Sci. 2,994

Biological Sci. 9,769

Medical Sci. 17,271

Life Sci. Other 1,180

Physical Sci. 3,933

Sci. Other 1,046

All Other 12,916

Chart: Funding Growth for S&E R&D Expenditures at US Universities by Field, FY08

Physical Sci. 1.9%

Agricultural Sci. 2.7%

Environmental Sci. 2.8%

Medical Sci. 4.3%

Life Sci. Other 4.4%

All Other 5.9%

Biological Sci. 5.9%

Sci. Other 10.9%