Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) primarily perform R&D for and receive most of their financial support from the federal government. While most of the actual facilities are owned by the government, the institutions are operated and managed by either universities, industrial firms, or nonprofit organizations. There are a total of 39 FFRDCs in the United States, nine of which (including the two largest) are in California.

The nine FFRDCs in California account for nearly a third, or just over $2 billion in FY 1993, of total federal funding for FFRDCs nationwide (see Table 4). The largest is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, operated by CalTech. JPL conducts R&D on solar system exploration, including work in the fields of astrophysics and earth sciences. In FY 1993, JPL received $760 million for R&D, mainly from NASA. More recent budget figures from NASA place JPL's total FY 1996 budget closer to $1 billion.

Close behind JPL in size is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, operated by the University of California. Livermore conducts R&D primarily for DOE on physics, nuclear weapons systems, and the life and environmental sciences. It received $806 million for R&D in FY 1996. Upheavals in DOE's budget over the past year resulting in increases for DOE's weapons R&D and energy sciences but stagnant funding or cuts for DOE's other work have resulted in some uncertainty for the lab's future growth. Livermore's sister lab, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, also managed by the University of California, conducts mostly energy sciences research for DOE.

The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, an independent non-profit corporation, conducted $153 million in R&D for DOD in FY 1993. Other FFRDCs in California include the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University which conducts high-energy physics R&D for DOE, the Energy Technology Engineering Center in Canoga Park operated by Rockwell International for DOE, and three small FFRDCs operated by the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica which conduct DOD research. Another RAND-operated FFRDC, the Critical Technologies Institute, is based in Washington, DC, but conducts some of its NSF-funded work in Santa Monica. In addition, the University of California also operates the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which is not discussed in this report.

In California, DOE directs over three-fourths of its R&D funding to its four FFRDCs, with the remainder split among industrial firms and universities. Most of the FFRDC funds go to support physics and energy sciences research. A majority of NASA's R&D in California is performed by industrial firms, despite JPL's strong presence in the state. Likewise, while DOD expends about $400 million a year at its California FFRDCs, over 80 percent of its R&D is conducted in industrial firms.