• The three Gulf States, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, together received 4.0 percent of the national expenditure on research and development (R&D) in fiscal year (FY) 1997, a total of $2.8 billion. The Gulf States region is home to 4.3 percent of the total U.S. population.
• All three states participate in the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to assist in improving research competitiveness. Mississippi received $329 million in total federal R&D in FY 1997 and Louisiana's R&D enterprise amounted to $230 million. Alabama's total federal R&D portfolio was almost $2.3 billion in FY 1997, almost as much as the other 17 EPSCoR participating states combined.
• The federal government is the primary source of R&D dollars in the region, with the Department of Defense (DOD) the lead contributor. DOD provided over $1.4 billion in FY 1997, over one-half the total amount of federal R&D that went to that region.
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the secondary source of federal R&D, with $889 million in FY 1997. This accounts for 9.3 percent of all NASA R&D funding nationwide
• Industry is by far the largest performer of federal R&D in the Gulf States, receiving $1.5 billion or over one-half of all federal dollars in FY 1997. Government laboratories are second, receiving $888 million, and universities and colleges third with $391 million in FY 1997.
• The Gulf States region is home to a diverse academic community with ten major universities and colleges that conduct R&D. The region boasts three universities ranked among the top 100 university recipients of federal R&D dollars; one is in the top 50.
• On the average, universities and colleges in the Gulf States rely on federal sources for 51 percent of their total R&D expenditures; the national average is almost 60 percent. The institutions themselves are the second-largest source of R&D funding, providing $176 million to support university R&D in FY 1997. Surprisingly, state and local governments are close behind providing $109 million for R&D.
• Important federal laboratories in the Gulf States include NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, the USDA Southern Regional Research Center in Louisiana, and NASA Stennis Space Flight Center in Mississippi.
• Major industrial firms in the Gulf State region include Aegis Research, Lockheed Martin, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Raytheon, Exxon, Dow Chemical, and Hercules.
  

Amid the sounds of zydeco and the smell of steamed shrimp, there is a surprisingly strong research and development (R&D) base in the Gulf States. Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi received $2.8 billion in federal R&D in FY 1997. This accounts for 4.0 percent of total federal R&D spending which is consistent with the region's 4.3 percent share of the nation's population.

These figures can be misleading, however, since the distribution of R&D spending among the threes states is far from uniform. Alabama, with only 4.3 million people (1.6 percent of the United States), received $2.26 billion of federal R&D in FY 1997 (see Table 1). This translates into 3.2 percent of total federal R&D and ranks Alabama ninth in federal R&D expenditures among the fifty states and the District of Columbia. In contrast, Louisiana (population of 4.4 million) ranks 36th with $230 million in FY 1997 of federally funded R&D and Mississippi (population of 2.7 million) ranks 28th with $329 million in FY 1997.

All three states are part of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). EPSCoR targets 18 states and Puerto Rico in order to help states that traditionally have been underrepresented as recipients of federal R&D funds. EPSCoR funding from NSF is currently $48 million, with the same amount being spent by all other agencies' (DOE, DOD, USDA, EPA, and NASA) EPSCoR programs combined. Louisiana and Mississippi fit the profile of typical EPSCoR states, while Alabama receives almost as much federal R&D dollars as all the other EPSCoR states combined.

The federal government supplies the majority of R&D funding to the Gulf States (see Table 2). The Department of Defense (DOD) is the lead contributor to the area. DOD contributed $1.5 billion to the three states, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) placed second with $889 million in 1997. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was third with expenditures of $230 million in 1997.

The largest beneficiary of these dollars is industry, which received $1.5 billion in FY 1997 or a 4.7 percent share of all federal funds given to industry (see Table 1). Government labs were next, receiving $888 million in FY 1997 or a 5.3 percent share. However, of those funds, private industry in Alabama received $1.36 billion and Alabama federal labs received $661 million.

After years of flat funding levels, federal R&D in the Gulf States began a gradual climb in the mid-1980s. The region reached a peak of federal R&D funding in FY 1992 with almost $3 billion (see Chart 5). In FY 1994, there was a sharp decline but gradual increases since that time have brought R&D funding levels closer to the $3 billion mark again.