In an effort to support research collaboration among the state’s largest universities, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed FY 2019 capital budget would provide $500 million for the University of Illinois Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago’s South Loop. The funds would serve as a state match for private donations from individuals, corporations, and other entities.

New National Science Foundation data indicates that the federal government’s support for national laboratories and research centers has continued to decline in constant dollars after peaking with the 2011 infusion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.  Six federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC’s) comprise about one-half of all FFRDC spending: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and five Department of Energy national labs.

The boost in federal R&D funds as a result of the 2009 stimulus package had a significant impact on local economic development, according to a new working paper from researchers at the University of Michigan.

A new report from the Department of Energy (DOE) highlights examples of major scientific accomplishments emerging from 40 years of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) research support, including how these discoveries have helped fulfill DOE’s mission and have led to new technologies and industries that contribute to American innovation and prosperity.

With Earth Day just around the corner, SSTI is taking a closer look at environmental science research spending in the states.  Even as climate change emerged as a key political topic during the first decade of the millennium, spending on environmental research at American colleges and universities declined as a percentage of all R&D, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. Between 2003-12, environmental science expenditures fell from 5.3 percent of all R&D expenditures to 4.8 percent.

State agencies in New York spent more on research and development than agencies in any other state in FY11, according to data released by the National Science Foundation. The NSF data provides an overview of state agency investments in R&D, broken down by the source of those funds and the types of organizations that eventually performed the research. Ohio, Florida and California also ranked among the top states for total agency investment. West Virginia and Ohio led in R&D investments as a share of state GDP in FY11.

In recent years, national polices supporting university-led innovation have shifted from the linear, science-push model to a model that supports an interactive, reciprocal process of knowledge transfer between industry and university through research parks, university-industry research projects, etc. As these new national polices mature, academic researchers are starting to examine the effectiveness of university-focused policies on spurring innovation and their impact on economic development. A recently released study examines the effectiveness national polices in leading Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in spurring university-led innovation and the impact of these policies on social and economic development.

With an eye toward long-term payoffs associated with investments in research, lawmakers dedicated funds and strengthened ties with industry partners. Some states made significant investments in facilities and R&D to grow cancer research capabilities, while others looked to universities to establish new avenues for discovery or attract star researchers. In Washington, the life sciences community banded together to save a nine year-old grant fund that invests in R&D and helps the state remain competitive.

While the promise of federal legislative reform for 2014 dims, as many as 21 states may have patent troll laws on the books before the end of the year. Although most of the power to curb patent trolling is held by the federal government, these state laws provide mechanisms to allow for action to be taken against any person that makes a bad faith assertion of patent infringement and other abusive patent litigations.

The White House Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum on R&D priorities that directs agencies to prioritize basic science and lower costs in their FY 2019 budget requests. R&D investments should be made in military superiority, security, prosperity, energy dominance and health. The memo repeatedly encourages officials to identify, and divest of, research areas where industry is ready to make their own investments toward commercial development.

While some researchers contend that university-industry collaboration may corrupt the academic ideal of open sciences and reduce academic productivity, researchers from the London Business School (LBS) and University of Southern California (USC) found that university-industry research collaborations – in certain situations – can lead to more publications but fewer patents than similar academic studies without industry partners. These findings would indicate that such collaboration can actually stimulate open science and increase academic productivity, rather than weaken it.

In 2015, businesses spent 4.4 percent more on R&D performed in the U.S. than they did in 2014, reaching $356 billion total, the NSF reports. Of the total R&D expenditures in 2015, companies spent $22 billion (6 percent) on basic research, $56 billion (16 percent) on applied research, and $278 billion (78 percent) on development.

Would you expect a community of 100,000 people to have less than one-half as much R&D activity as a community with 250,000 residents? Such a simple question cannot be considered without more information. You may ask which two communities are being compared.

In 2011, U.S.-located companies spent $29.6 billion for extramural (purchased and collaborative) research and development performed by mostly domestic organizations, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) InfoBrief. Approximately $24 billion in R&D spending was purchased R&D. The additional $5.6 billion was payments to R&D collaborators.

About 70 percent of 2011 U.S. business R&D spending occurred in 10 states, according to a report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). California leads the country in overall business R&D, and nearly every top industry.  Both the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland and Los Angeles-Long Beach area rank in the top three areas for business research.  Other top states include Washington, with high spending on software R&D, and Texas, a leader in semiconductor and mining research.

Most R&D expenditures are concentrated across just a handful of states, according to recent NSF data on how research and development is funded in the United States.  In 2011, nearly two-thirds of all research and development expenditures came from private sources. In the wake of the nation’s federal stimulus package that saw an upswing in government spending on research and development, most states are beginning to rely more on innovation that stems from R&D conducted and paid for by private sources rather than the federal government.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced that it received state-backing for its Cybersecurity Investment Fund (CIF) – a fund that helps companies across the state develop and commercialize new cybersecurity products. TEDCO will make investments of up to $100,000 to help companies achieve early technical milestones that are critical to the commercialization process.

With a recent request for information (RFI), the National Science Foundation began soliciting comments on the potential establishment of a national network of big data regional innovation hubs. These hubs will help to continue and scale up the activities and partnerships launched under the National Big Data R&D Initiative and also serve as a catalyst for economic prosperity by supporting the growth of the U.S. big data industry.

Federal investment in research and development appears to be falling far short of the ambitious goals set by Presidents Bush and Obama in the early part of the century. Though federal R&D spending grew by 22.5 percent from fiscal years 2002 to 2012, commitments declined substantially in 2011-12, following the spike in funding through the Recovery Act. By 2012, R&D expenditures were at their lowest levels since 2004.

As American spending on research relative to GDP dwindles, the system that generated America’s economic prosperity over the past century has begun to fall apart, according to a new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy calls the disintegration of the country’s national innovation system the key threat to American prosperity.

Federal funding for basic research performed at universities and colleges decreased 0.3% between FY11 and FY12, according to a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Infobrief. In FY12, basic research at universities and colleges accounted for 11.4% of total R&D obligations, and is estimated to increase to 11.8 percent of total R&D obligations in FY13, and to 12.5 percent in FY14.

Building stronger connections between universities and businesses in key industries could help generate new jobs, startups and technologies, according to an S&T roadmap released by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC). ISTC notes that the division between the state’s research universities and companies has limited Illinois’ competitiveness, despite its high overall level of innovative activity.

Across the nation, R&D at colleges and universities plays an important role in generating promising inventions, training our STEM talent pipeline, and supporting regional economic development. An SSTI analysis of National Science Foundation data finds that higher-education R&D (HERD) is a multi-billion dollar industry that directly employs nearly one million personnel on projects and grants in the United States. However, the locations of R&D projects and personnel differ greatly by state and region.

Federal funds for science and engineering at American universities grew steadily from 2001 to 2008, jumped in 2009 and 2010 due to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), and more or less returned to its original trajectory in 2011, according to survey data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Federal S&E funding in most states followed a similar pattern. A few states, including Minnesota and Delaware, managed to sustain their level of federal S&E support after the Recovery Act funds ceased.