Useful Stats

North Carolina universities receive a larger share of research dollars from businesses than higher education institutions in any other state, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey. The most recent survey provides data on research expenditures by source for each state and territory for FY12. Wisconsin and the District of Columbia received the greatest share of R&D funding from nonprofits, while Wyoming, Maryland Guam and the Virgin Island receive the largest share of funding from the federal government.

North Carolina’s advantage in corporate funding stems from the large amount of private dollars received by Duke University. In FY12, Duke received $226.2 million from private sources, about triple the amount received by any other institution in the state and more than any other university in the country. Businesses funded about $316.8 million in North Carolina academic R&D in FY12, about 11.8 percent of the state total.

Between FY2007-12, research and development (R&D) spending at U.S. universities grew 27.5 percent, from about $51.6 billion to $65.8 billion, according to the latest edition of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey. The survey provides a look at R&D spending at U.S. universities, with data broken down by state, institution, research area and funding sources. California remained the leader in university R&D spending, but spending in the state grew at a slightly lower rate than the national average. Most of the other top 20 states experienced gains that exceeded the national average.

U.S. patents continued their rapid pace of growth in 2013, according to statistics from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  USPTO granted 122,593 utility patents last year, a 10 percent increase over the previous year and a 72 percent increase over 2008. Much of the increase in activity is due to the growth of IT and software patenting, as discussed in a separate SSTI Digest article. California leads the country in utility patents, representing about 27 percent of patents granted in 2013. Massachusetts narrowly leads California in per capita patenting activity, followed by Vermont and Washington.

The U.S. remains the global leader in research and development (R&D) spending, but its share of global research is on the decline, according to the National Science Board’s (NSB) Science and Engineering Indicators 2014 report. U.S. R&D expenditures, including government, private and academic spending, reached about $428 billion in 2011 (see our previous Digest article on U.S. R&D spending), representing a 21.4 percent increase over 2006. Over the past decade, however, the U.S. share of global spending has fallen from 37 to 30 percent. Much of the decline is due to growing research activity in East, Southeast and South Asia.

Last year, U.S. venture capitalists invested about $10.7 billion in seed and early stage companies, 17.1 percent higher than 2012, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Moneytree survey.  Though the overall venture capital (VC) market has returned to about the same level of activity as before the economic crisis, investment in seed and early stage companies has grown by more than a third. Most of this increase is attributable to growth in early stage investment, but seed activity has grown as well (as discussed in another article).

After hitting an all-time high in 2012, California’s dominance of the nation’s venture capital activity receded a bit last year. California continues to receive about half of the country’s venture investment dollars and about 40 percent of its dealflow, but in 2013, the state’s share of dollars fell from 53 to 50 percent, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association (PwC/NVCA) Moneytree survey. Massachusetts, which has been host to about 10 percent of national venture activity in past years, also saw its share of total U.S. activity decline. Gains in second tier venture capital states appear to account for the shift, including upticks in Florida, Maryland, New York, Texas and Virginia. Massachusetts continue to lead the country in terms of dollars and deals per capita, though for the first time that lead was threatened by the rise of Washington, D.C., as a venture capital hotspot.

Powered by strong growth in the Internet and Software sectors, U.S. venture capital activity grew by about 7.5 percent in 2013, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Moneytree survey. Both venture dollars and deals ticked up last year, bouncing back to 2011 levels after a slow 2012. For the nation and most states, investment seems to have returned to its pre-crisis level.

Last year, almost $29.4 billion was invested in 3,995 deals, according to the NVCA/PWC data. These levels indicate a modest increase over a weak 2012, but about equal to 2011 activity.

Despite a small decline in research investment in 2011, New Mexico continues to have the country’s most research-focused economy, according to the National Science Foundation National Patterns of R&D Resources survey.  NSF’s figures include all R&D investment in the state from all sources, including the federal government, private businesses, academic institutions and others. The data indicates that, as of 2011, research spending in New Mexico represents 7.63 percent of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).  

New Mexico’s strong R&D focus is driven by the presence of large research institutions, including Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and White Sands Missile Range. Due to the presence of these major research centers, the state’s R&D intensity is more than twice that of the U.S. as a whole, in which $2.84 was spent on research for every $100 in GDP.

U.S. R&D spending began to rebound in 2011 and 2012 after several years of stagnation, according to new survey data released by the National Science Foundation. During the economic crisis of 2008-10, R&D expenditures froze at just over $400 billion. Newly revised data for 2011 and preliminary data for 2012 indicate that R&D spending began to recover in those years, outpacing U.S. GDP growth. This resurgence, however, has not materialized for all stages of research. While spending on applied research and development have bounced back, basic research spending decreased in 2011 and grew only slightly in 2012. The long-term U.S. shift in focus away from basic research appears to have accelerated in the aftermath of the economic crisis.

A record number of U.S. students received doctorates in 2012, according to new data from the National Science Foundation. For the first time, the number of doctoral recipients broke 50,000, with a final tally of 51,008. Total doctorates awarded grew by 4.3 percent over the previous year, the largest increase since 2007 and a significant improvement from the previous four years in which the numbers remains fairly steady. The NSF data shows large increases for doctorates in STEM areas, including life sciences, physical sciences and engineering between 2002 and 2012, and little growth in other major fields, including the social sciences, education and humanities.

New business creation in the U.S. increased in 2011 for the first time since the 2007-09 economic crisis, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Census data indicates that 8.2 percent of all businesses were less than one year old in 2011, the first increase since 2006 and the largest increase in a decade. A pair of briefs from the Census Bureau and the Kauffman Foundation link the decline and rebound of American startups to fluctuations in housing prices during the economic downturn. They also suggest that the increase in firm creation has been well-distributed throughout the country.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has conducted a Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development for fiscal years 2010-12. In total, federal R&D obligations were $144.7 billion in FY10. The top state recipients, in absolute terms, are California ($28.3 billion, representing 19.6% of the national total), Maryland ($17.0 billion, 11.8%), Virginia ($9.3 billion, 6.4%), Massachusetts ($8.9 billion, 6.1%), and Texas ($7.3 billion, 5.0%). The states and territories receiving the least are Delaware, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and finally Wyoming.

SSTI has prepared a table of federal R&D obligations by state for FY10, as well as federal R&D obligations as a percentage of states' gross state product.

As in FY09, California's R&D obligations are largely attributable to the Department of Defense, which spent $16.7 billion in total development, with more than $1 billion in research.