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U.S. spending on higher education research and development (R&D) declined in FY12 (after adjustments for inflation) for the first time in almost 40 years, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The decrease marks the end of a period of modest growth since 2009 in which R&D expenditures increased at an average of five percent each year. While data on higher education R&D spending by state is not yet available for FY12, NSF has released state data through FY11, including expenditures by funding source

State government agencies spent $1.4 billion on research in FY11, an 11.3 percent increase over the previous year, according to a release from the National Science Foundation. Much of the increase was concentrated in the top five states, New York, Ohio, Florida, California and Pennsylvania, which together represent about 51 percent of total U.S. state R&D spending.

According to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey the percentage of university R&D funded by private sector investment has remained mostly stable since the late 1970s, hovering between 5 percent and 7 percent of total R&D expenditures. In FY 2011 the private sector invested $3.2 billion, or 4.9 percent of the total $65 billion university R&D expenditures.

A new report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) portrays science and engineering employment in the United States as highly concentrated in a small number of states and metro areas. Most states reflected a lower S&E employment intensity than the United States as a whole. As noted in the report, the availability of a skilled workforce is an important predictor of a region’s population, productivity, and technological growth.

Research collaborations between institutions of higher education are becoming an increasingly important facet of U.S. R&D, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). A new NSF InfoBrief reveals that pass-through funds, R&D expenditures transferred from one institution to another, represented seven percent of total expenditures in 2009. In 2000, they represented only five percent of expenditures.

An InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) provides a preview of the results of NSF's latest survey of R&D activities performed and funded by state government agencies in FY09. Though the InfoBrief is not a comprehensive guide to state R&D spending, the summary sheds some light on state research priorities. A total of $1.2 billion in spending was reported by state agencies, which also were asked about the type of R&D performed with those funds.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding allowed the U.S. federal government to maintain steady funding of research and development (R&D) during the economic crisis. Now that the vast majority of those funds have been spent, however, the U.S. will have to step up its support of R&D to remain competitive. Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics released some illuminating data on how an increase in federal spending helped buoy U.S.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) released a report on federal research and development (R&D) spending — Federal Funds for Research and Development: Fiscal Years 2008–10. It percents data collected from NSF surveys sent to all 27 federal agencies that were conducting R&D programs in early 2008. Total R&D spending is reported as both outlays and obligations for those three fiscal years (FY). In this report, the basis for reporting is determined by fiscal year:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NSCES) has released a series of InfoBriefs that track U.S. R&D spending from 2009-10, as the country endured and began to recover from the recession. In 2009, U.S. R&D spending suffered its first decline since the 1950s, though that decline was minimal (0.6 percent) and much smaller than the drop in U.S. GDP (2.5 percent). After adjusting for inflation, the $400.5 billion spent on R&D in 2009 represents a slightly larger decrease (1.7 percent) than in current dollars.