AAAS R&D Program - Guide to R&D Funding Data

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R&D Budget and Policy Program

GUIDE TO R&D FUNDING DATA-
HISTORICAL DATA

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Federal Research Investments Continue to Decline in 2009 Budget

Although high-priority investments in physical sciences research, weapons development, and human space exploration help to keep the federal R&D outlook brighter than the bleak outlook for domestic programs overall, the FY 2009 budget continues the recent trends of declining federal support for research.

The federal investment in basic and applied research would fall in real terms for the fifth year in a row if the FY 2009 budget is enacted. Federal research did very well between 1998 and 2003 because of the campaign to double the budget of NIH, the largest federal supporter of research. Other agencies also increased their research investments in that time period because a string of budget surpluses freed up resources for domestic appropriations. But with the return of budget deficits in 2002 followed by restraints on domestic spending thereafter, growth in research funding for NIH and other domestic agencies slowed in 2004 and then reversed. At the same time, DOD research support lagged as the Pentagon went to war in 2003 and shifted resources away from research toward near-term projects, and NASA research fell even within a stable R&D budget as it shifted resources from research to development. As a result, federal support for research is now in decline, with potential gains in the physical sciences more than offset by eroding support for biomedical research and other disciplines. The 2009 budget would continue the downward slide in federal research funding and leave the federal research portfolio 9.1 percent below the 2004 level in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Federal research investments are shrinking as a share of the U.S. economy, just as other nations are increasing their investments. As shown in the Figure below, the federal R&D investment exceeded 1 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) until recently, buoyed by big increases in weapons development, but is now declining sharply. Federal investments in development, mostly in DOD, have held steady as a share of the economy, but the federal research/GDP ratio is in free fall down to a projected 0.38 percent in 2009, below the long-term historical average of 0.4 percent after gains in the late 1990s. Despite an increasingly technology-based economy and a growing recognition among policymakers that federal research investments are the seed corn for future technology-based innovations, the U.S. government research investment has so far failed to match the new realities despite the rallying points of innovation and the American Competitiveness Initiative, and has also failed to match the competition. Asian nations are dramatically increasing their government research investments: both China and South Korea, for example, are boosting government research by 10 percent or more annually.

- revised March 7, 2008

Historical data for federal R&D come from many sources. Many of the charts below rely on data collected by the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Statistics. Data from NSF sources can be found by following the above link. Others rely on OMB data from historical tables in the FY 2009 budget. The data in this section are for federally funded R&D only. Historical trends for R&D at universities (all funding sources) and in total U.S. R&D (private and public funds) can be found in their respective sections on this Web site.

The data below are from past AAAS reports on R&D, and provide the best comparison with data on R&D in the FY 2009 budget. For years before 1976, please go to other sources of data below. The two tables below are the most comprehensive references for R&D by agency over the last 33 years, and the accompanying charts illustrate selected trends from the tables. The first chart traces how development funding has done extremely well over the past decade, while research funding has lagged. The second chart examines growth in nondefense R&D over the past decade, mostly because of strong growth in NIH R&D. All other nondefense R&D funding agencies have received flat funding for more than a decade. But in 2009, both parts of the nondefense R&D portfolio decline. The third chart shows that research increased steadily until 2004, mostly because of growth in NIH, which now accounts for the majority of all federal support for research, but now research funding is declining. The fourth chart shows similar trends in basic research only. The fifth chart shows that defense R&D declined steadily after the end of the Cold War, but is now increasing again, but mostly for the development of weapons systems. DOD support of "S&T" (basic and applied research, and some technology development) reached an all-time high in 2005, but would decline sharply in 2009, as shown in the sixth chart. The seventh and eighth charts show that in the past decade, the top agency supporters of R&D have differed sharply in their budgetary fortunes. Some have won increases, but many have seen their R&D budgets decline. In the FY 2009 request, some of the R&D funding agencies would receive modest increases but several would decline.

-as part of the federal budget (OMB data.) R&D is a significant but declining part of the federal budget. Nearly all federal R&D is funded through the discretionary portion of the budget, and although R&D has remained relatively constant as a share of all discretionary spending, R&D has declined as a proportion of the total budget as the discretionary share of the budget has declined as a result of growing entitlements spending.

-Chart. Trends in R&D and Discretionary Outlays, 1962-2013 (2/08)
-Chart. R&D as Percent of Discretionary Spending: FY 1962-2009 (2/08)
-Chart. R&D as Percent of the Federal Budget: FY 1962-2009 (2/08)

-by Function (OMB data). The relative priority of different areas of R&D has varied over the years, reflecting changing national priorities. Spending on defense R&D has exceeded all other R&D spending for most of the past four decades, but the first chart below shows that the relative size of the two sectors has varied considerably over the years. The second chart shows how priorities in nondefense R&D have shifted. Space was the dominant mission in the 1960s; energy R&D has fluctuated in importance; health R&D, meanwhile, has shown practically uninterrupted growth and now represents the largest single share of the nondefense R&D portfolio.

-Chart. Defense and Nondefense R&D, 1955-2009 (preliminary 2/08) - Data Table
-Chart. Nondefense R&D by Function, 1955-2009 (preliminary 2/08) - Data Table

-by Character of Work (AAAS and NSF data). The chart shows research support by agency over the past 30 years. Federal support for research has grown steadily, and NIH has expanded its share of federal support. As a result, federal support for research at colleges and universities has expanded dramatically. The same trends hold true for basic research only.

-Chart. Federal Research by Agency, 1970-2007 (2/08)
-Chart. Federal Research by Performer, 1970-2007 (2/08)

-Chart. Trends in Research by Agency, 1976-2009 (revised 3/08) - Data Table

-Chart. Trends in Basic Research by Agency, 1975-2009 (revised 3/08) - Data Table
-Chart. Federal Basic Research by Performer, 1970-2007 (2/08) - Data Table

-by Performer (NSF data). The first chart shows trends in federal R&D by performer; industry has traditionally been the largest performer of federal R&D, but its performance has declined in recent years while other performers, especially colleges and universities, have won increasing shares of federal R&D. The second chart shows that agencies vary greatly in their performer mix; DOD and NASA rely heavily on industrial performers, while NIH and NSF rely heavily on colleges and universities; FFRDCs are important performers for DOE and NASA.

-Chart. Federal R&D Funding by Performer, 1955-2007 (2/08) - Data Table
-Chart. Federal R&D Funding by Performer at Selected Agencies, FY 2007 (2/08)

-by Science and Engineering Discipline (NSF data). Complete coverage of R&D by discipline can be found in the R&D by Science and Engineering Discipline section of this Guide. The chart below shows that while federal support for many disciplines has remained relatively constant over the past three decades, federal support for the life sciences has increased dramatically. Nearly all of this growth has been due to increasing support for the biomedical sciences, in contrast to flat or declining funding for agricultural sciences, non-human biological sciences, and other non-medical life sciences.

-Chart. Trends in Federal Research by Discipline, 1970-2007 (2/08) - Data Table

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