Useful Stats: 2002 State Rankings of Academic R&D Expenditures

Academic research and development expenditures grew 11 percent in fiscal year 2002, according to new data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). An NSF report, Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2002, finds 625 institutions of higher education in the U.S. collectively spent $36.332 billion in FY 2002. The figure for FY 2001 was $32.723 billion.

Federal sources of R&D funds accounted for a significant majority of the growth, climbing to $21.834 billion in FY 2002 ­- 13.8 percent higher than the $19.191 billion reported for the previous year. State and local sources of R&D expenditures at academic institutions went up 8 percent, with a $2.501 billion share of the nation's total. Funding from industry sources, accounting for $2.188 billion, experienced a 2 percent decrease over the previous year.

Institutional funds rose nearly 8.5 percent to $7.109 billion in FY 2002. Other sources such as foundations or individuals provided $2.701 billion in FY 2002, a growth rate of 11.1 percent.

With 72 detailed statistical tables, Academic Research and Development Expenditures presents the findings by source of funds, field and selected subfields of science or engineering, by academic institution, and by geographic distribution. SSTI has prepared a table standardizing academic R&D expenditures on a per capita basis by state.

The SSTI table shows the national average academic R&D expenditures per capita in FY 2002 was $126.17. The figure was $114.69 for FY 2001. The District of Columbia reported the highest academic R&D expenditures per capita for FY 2002 at $442.06. Maryland, Massachusetts, Alaska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Connecticut and Pennsylvania round out the top 10 on a per capita basis.

SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/080904t.htm

Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2002 is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf04330/htmstart.htm