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Science, Technology, and the Federal Government: National Goals for a New Era (1993)

Chapter: APPENDIX: FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

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Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX: FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES." National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 1993. Science, Technology, and the Federal Government: National Goals for a New Era. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9481.
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Page 51
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX: FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES." National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 1993. Science, Technology, and the Federal Government: National Goals for a New Era. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9481.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX: FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES." National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 1993. Science, Technology, and the Federal Government: National Goals for a New Era. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9481.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX: FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ANDDEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES." National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. 1993. Science, Technology, and the Federal Government: National Goals for a New Era. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9481.
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Page 54

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APPENDIX 51 APPENDIX FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES The federal government finances somewhat less than half the research and development (R&D) conducted in the United States. Private industry funds about half; colleges, universities, and other nonprofit organizations such as foundations play smaller but still important roles (Figure 1). The federal government funds R&D in four different types of organizations: industrial laboratories, laboratories owned by the federal government and managed either by the government or by contractors, colleges and universities, and other nonprofit organizations such as hospitals and museums (Figure 2). Most of the federally funded R&D conducted in industry is focused on the missions of federal agencies, particularly the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The federal government is also the primary customer for the products of the national security and aerospace sectors, and therefore has a strong influence on private-sector R&D in these areas through its procurement policies. When federally supported R&D in industry is added to the R&D financed by industry itself, industry is the performer of almost 70 percent of all the R&D done in the United States (Figure 3). Figure 3 also shows that government laboratories, including laboratories administered by industry, universities and colleges, and other nonprofit institutions, are the second largest performers of R&D in the United States. The Department of Defense funds about half of the R&D done in government laboratories. This work focuses largely on technology development to meet military needs.

APPENDIX 52 In the Department of Energy, the national laboratories pursue both R&D driven by specific government missions, such as weapons development and energy development, and research related to general science in such areas as elementary particle physics research. The intramural laboratories of the National Institutes of Health make major contributions of knowledge to the health care system. NASA’s laboratories focus on technologies needed for space exploration and for aeronautics, while those of the Department of Agriculture seek to extend and disseminate agricultural knowledge. FIGURE 1 Estimated funding of research and development in 1992 by industry, by the federal government, by colleges and universities, and by other nonprofit institutions. The total for colleges and universities includes state and local government funds separately budgeted for research and development. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Patterns of R&D Resources: 1992, Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1992 In terms of overall expenditures, colleges and universities do somewhat less R&D than do government laboratories. Colleges and universities receive more than half their research funding from the federal government (Figure 4). Over 90 percent of the federal funding for R&D in universities comes from six federal agencies: the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation,

APPENDIX 53 the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture. The broad structure of the U.S. R&D system outlined above has been fairly stable in recent years. However, the period has seen some significant long-term trends. The percentage of federal R&D funds going for defense purposes has dropped, from 69 percent in 1986 to less than 60 percent in 1992. This percentage can be expected to drop further in the future. Since 1985, academic R&D has expanded substantially, whereas R&D in industry and in government laboratories has grown less rapidly. The share of federal funds in academic R&D has declined over that period, from two-thirds of the total in the early 1980s to an estimated 57 percent today. This drop has been accompanied by an increase in funding from industry and from internal funds of universities and colleges. FIGURE 2 Estimates of federally funded research and development done in 1992 in industry, in government laboratories (including laboratories administered by industry, by colleges and universities, and by other nonprofit institutions), in colleges and universities, and in other nonprofit institutions. SOURCES: National Science Foundation, National Patterns of R&D Resources: 1992, Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1992. Personal communication, John Jankowski, National Science Foundation, 993.

APPENDIX 54 FIGURE 3 Estimated performance of total research and development in 1992 by industry, by government laboratories (including laboratories administered by industry, by colleges and universities, and by other nonprofit institutions), by colleges and universities, and by other nonprofit institutions. SOURCES: National Science Foundation, National Patterns of R&D Resources: 1992, Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1992. Personal communication, John Jankowski, National Science Foundation, 993. FIGURE 4 Estimates of funding sources for academic research and development in 1992. Funding from universities and colleges includes state and local government funds separately budgeted for research and development. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Patterns of R&D Resources: 1992, Washington, D.C.: National Science Foundation, 1992.

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During recent decades, a series of political and technological revolutions have significantly changed the context in which science and technology policy is made in the United States. As the new millennium approaches, these broad changes have recast the framework in which the U.S. research and development system functions. Representatives of the scientific and engineering communities have attempted to understand that new framework and to describe ways in which science and technology can respond to it. The result is the report Science, Technology, and the Federal Government, which proposes a renewed and strengthened covenant between science, technology, and society.

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