Grants Resource Center – by Graeff, Frank

Funding for research and development (R&D) at institutions of higher education (IHEs) increased nearly 5 percent from academic fiscal year FY 16 to FY 17, according to a new government report. Total R&D expenditures reached $75.3 billion in FY 17, up 4.7 percent from $71.9 billion in FY 16, according to the Higher Education Research and Development Survey, conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation. Two-thirds of growth stemmed from increases in the life sciences subfields of biological and biomedical sciences (up $664 million) and health sciences (up $1.6 million).

In absolute dollars, IHEs saw more funding from every type of source studied, including the federal government, local governments, businesses, nonprofits, and the university’s own funds. R&D expenditures funded from universities’ own sources reached nearly $19 billion in FY 17. This total accounted for 25 percent of total higher education R&D. The total amount and the share are the largest since the survey began in 1953. Conversely, total federal funding for research slightly decreased to 53.5 percent, the lowest since the survey began. Since federal funding primarily supported basic and fundamental research, applied and developmental research now take up a larger percentage of total research, increasing to 38 percent from 34 percent in FY 10.

To read more about the survey results, click here. To access the full report, click here.