New Report on Science Spending

The National Science Foundation has released a 84-page report entitled “National Patterns of R&D Resources: 1992" providing important data on selected R&D trends. A product of the Division of Science Resources Studies, this document is the latest in a series of NSF reports monitoring science and technology spending.

Highlights of the report’s major findings (some of which are approximations/estimations/expectations) follow. All are adjusted for inflation:

U.S. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SPENDING (defense and civilian) in 1992 totaled $157 billion. This is a 1 percent increase over the 1991 level of $151 billion, and is counter to slight declines in spending in 1990 and 1991. Industry provided $81 billion (up 0.4 percent), the federal government provided $68 billion (1 percent growth), with most of the remainder from universities and colleges supported by state and local governments (up 7 percent.)

U.S. R&D GROWTH was at an annual rate of 1.1 percent in the 1985-1992 period, although it declined in some years. During 1980-1985, spending was up at an annual average rate of 6.6 percent.

DEFENSE R&D as a proportion of national R&D expenditures declined from a high of 69 percent in 1986 to 59 percent in the 1992 federal budget. Civilian gains during the period were the highest for space and health research.

FEDERAL R&D SPENDING growth slowed from an average annual increase of 5.9 percent in 1980-1985 to 0.3 percent annual growth for 1985-1992. NON-FEDERAL R&D SPENDING GROWTH also declined, from an average annual rate of 7.2 percent to 1.8 percent.

R&D AS A PERCENT OF THE GDP (gross domestic product) declined from 2.8 percent in 1985 to 2.6 percent in 1992.

U.S./FOREIGN R&D EXPENDITURES AS A PERCENT OF GDP are as follows for 1990: Japan - 3.1 percent, West Germany - 2.8 percent, U.S. - 2.7 percent, France - 2.4 percent, United Kingdom - 2.3 percent, Italy - 1.4 percent.

INDUSTRY PERFORMED 70 percent of all R&D in 1992 ($110 billion.) In 1987, the federal government provided 33 percent of the money for R&D performed by industry, falling to 28 percent last year (with the rest of the funding being company-provided.)

R&D PERFORMED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT in 1992 is estimated at $18 billion, or 11 percent of “the [total] expected U.S. 1992 R&D performance.” The dollar amount is 4 percent over 1991 spending. The figure has been fairly stable over the last ten years. Major beneficiaries of the 4 percent increase were intramural R&D activities of DOD and NASA.

U.S. UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, including federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), performed 15 percent, or $24 billion of R&D in 1992. University and college performance was up 6 percent to $19 billion over 1991; FFRDC performance was down by 1 percent. This category had the highest growth of any sector during the 1985-1992 period. During the early 1980s, the federal government provided about two-thirds of academic R&D funding, dropping to 57 percent in 1992 (the lowest share since the late 1950s.)

R&D DISTRIBUTION in 1992 was as follows: development - 61 percent, applied research - 23 percent, basic research - 16 percent. Since 1985, development’s share of total R&D funding declined from a high of 65 percent, while basic research spending increased from a 13 percent share.

STATE R&D PERFORMANCE is uneven. California, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey R&D performance by all sectors accounted for about 50 percent of total U.S. R&D performance in 1989. Adding Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Maryland increases R&D performance to over 66 percent. R&D performed in each state listed above was over $5 billion. Conversely, the 20 lowest states performed, in total, $5 billion, about four percent of the national R&D performance.

R&D SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS employment is up 46 percent since 1980 to 949,300 in 1989. Industry accounted for most of the growth. In 1989, there were 448,600 employed doctoral scientists and engineers.

Appendix B: Detailed Statistical Tables, provides information on physicists, astronomers, and environmental scientists (earth scientists, oceanographers, atmospheric scientists). Among the highlights:

EMPLOYED PhD PHYSICISTS/ASTRONOMERS in 1989: Total employed - 24,560. Total R&D employment - 13,357, distributed as follows: Basic Research - 6,868, Applied Research - 5,521, Develop/Design - 968. In other selected areas of the total employed: Management/Administration - 3,540, Teaching - 5,586. (These figures and those immediately following derived from a sample.)

EMPLOYED PhD ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTISTS in 1989: Total employed - 19,787. Total R&D employment - 8,730, distributed as follows: Basic Research - 3,924, Applied Research - 4,553, Develop/Design - 253. In other selected areas of the total employed: Management/Administration - 3,776, Teaching - 3,447.

Tables are also provided on R&D expenditures at universities and colleges by source and field for the period 1983-1990 (among others.)