Useful Stats: Percent Change in Academic R&D Expenditures by State, 2001-2005

Last week’s release by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the results of the 2005 survey of academic R&D expenditures reveals the nation’s investment in research through its universities and colleges rose 5.8 percent in fiscal year 2005. Academic research expenditures for FY 2005 totaled $45.75 billion.

 

The results permit SSTI to prepare an updated version of its statistical glance at the five-year trends by state. As in past tables, the new rankings for the percent change in a state’s share of the total over the period 2001-2005 confirms it is extremely difficult for states to change their overall ranking on a year-by-year basis.

 

In fact, during the past five years, only a handful of states have shifted rankings by more than one position either up or down over the five years.

 

The only three states to show “dramatic” improvements of more than two spots are:

• Nebraska, which moved from 35th in 2001 and 2002 to 31st in 2005;
• Tennessee, which climbed steadily from 26th in 2001 to 20th in 2004 and 2005; and,
• Virginia, moving from 17th in 2001 to 14th in 2005.

Of course, not all movement could be in the up column. Two states saw declines of more than one or two rankings during the 2001-2005 time span:

• New Mexico, which dropped from 31st in 2001 to 34th in 2004 and 2005; and,
• Minnesota, which moved from 22 in 2001 and 2002 to 25th in 2005, an increase from the 2004 ranking of 26th.

Another measure of academic R&D trends that could be useful for TBED policymaking may be the percent change in a state’s total academic R&D expenditures relative to the national average. From 2001 to 2005, U.S. total academic R&D expenditures rose only 25.8 percent. Five states saw lower growth: Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Utah and Oklahoma. South Dakota and Wyoming bested the list, experiencing 106 percent and 100 increases, respectively, from 2001 to 2005.

 

The remaining top 10 states in rank order were West Virginia, North Dakota, Tennessee, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Hawaii and Vermont. Ohio is the only non-EPSCoR designated state among the top gainers.

 

SSTI’s table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/051407t.htm

 

Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2005 is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf07318/content.cfm?pub_id=3767&id=2