According to new data from the NSF, between fiscal years 2016 and 2017, federal R&D obligations grew 2.8% to $118.3 billion. The NSF defines federal obligations as representing “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 payments of money are required.” This includes funds from direct appropriations, trust funds, special accounts, fees and charges, and other federal sources, and comprise the total R&D cost, including specific project and overhead costs.

Obligations for R&D plant rose 23.6% to $3.0 billion during fiscal 2017, while total obligation funding for research decreased 0.3% to $66.5 billion. Basic research nominally increased 0.1% to $32.3 billion, while applied research obligations nominally decreased 0.8% to $34.2 billion and experimental development obligations jumped 7.2% to 51.8 billion.

Of all federal R&D obligations in 2017, 25% were research obligations, with HHS representing 48% of federal research obligations at $32.2 billion. The DoE comprised 15%, or $9.9 billion of federal research obligations, followed by the DoD at 11.3%, or $7.5 billion. The NSF itself made up 9%, or $5.7 billion of federal research obligations, while the USDA represented 3% at $2.3 billion.

By field, life sciences accounted for 48% of total federal research obligations, followed by engineering at 19% and physical sciences at 9%. Other sciences comprised 7% of federal obligations and environmental sciences represented 6%.

Source: NSF