Back to Data Tables
Excel icon Download to excel

Table 12. Higher education R&D expenditures, by source of funds and R&D field: FY 2016

(Dollars in thousands)

Fielda All R&D expenditures Source of funds
Federal government State and local government Institution funds Business Nonprofit organizations All other sources
All R&D fields 71,833,308 38,793,542 4,025,280 17,974,962 4,210,563 4,614,800 2,214,161
Science 56,290,662 31,090,354 3,023,028 13,541,084 3,031,096 3,868,151 1,736,949
Computer and information sciences 2,077,884 1,442,771 49,502 399,965 90,288 59,588 35,770
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences 3,087,774 1,992,990 157,693 614,647 109,478 127,763 85,203
Atmospheric science and meteorology 626,518 513,275 18,416 68,923 6,319 7,660 11,925
Geological and earth sciences 999,351 605,706 47,334 226,541 51,237 32,557 35,976
Ocean sciences and marine sciences 1,097,864 665,121 59,874 241,440 32,896 69,841 28,692
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences, nec 364,041 208,888 32,069 77,743 19,026 17,705 8,610
Life sciences 40,887,850 21,798,334 2,437,745 9,700,749 2,569,302 3,038,475 1,343,245
Agricultural sciences 3,293,092 976,912 873,403 1,031,049 166,341 134,067 111,320
Biological and biomedical sciences 13,048,981 7,707,943 554,094 2,983,417 552,727 958,620 292,180
Health sciences 22,393,716 12,098,295 813,806 5,025,036 1,802,695 1,832,951 820,933
Natural resources and conservationb 689,725 315,559 115,681 193,967 14,949 30,632 18,937
Life sciences, nec 1,462,336 699,625 80,761 467,280 32,590 82,205 99,875
Mathematics and statistics 681,661 444,419 25,714 170,414 8,844 23,601 8,669
Physical sciences 4,893,565 3,286,816 93,518 1,044,829 139,153 200,852 128,397
Astronomy and astrophysics 622,008 418,147 1,839 122,375 4,578 34,443 40,626
Chemistry 1,775,071 1,097,719 48,331 421,143 82,673 82,956 42,249
Materials scienceb 172,086 111,802 4,579 38,435 9,518 5,465 2,287
Physics 2,124,098 1,523,751 33,703 417,189 37,851 71,221 40,383
Physical sciences, nec 200,302 135,397 5,066 45,687 4,533 6,767 2,852
Psychology 1,218,721 761,433 49,603 291,319 13,084 84,105 19,177
Social sciences 2,366,571 898,576 145,563 908,025 50,569 282,278 81,560
Anthropologyb 96,505 39,440 2,501 42,190 1,982 7,860 2,532
Economics 396,393 112,338 37,543 166,032 8,910 54,860 16,710
Political science and government 385,245 103,681 15,042 177,119 3,991 61,439 23,973
Sociology, demography, and population studies 504,594 269,371 27,602 135,118 8,213 52,471 11,819
Social sciences, nec 983,834 373,746 62,875 387,566 27,473 105,648 26,526
Sciences, nec 1,076,636 465,015 63,690 411,136 50,378 51,489 34,928
Engineering 11,381,727 6,583,476 699,032 2,335,527 1,055,444 359,441 348,807
Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering 883,260 623,571 24,846 115,771 80,432 31,049 7,591
Bioengineering and biomedical engineering 1,084,355 650,752 56,057 254,840 46,976 53,428 22,302
Chemical engineering 885,273 467,678 40,386 199,334 121,432 34,328 22,115
Civil engineering 1,331,155 591,637 221,119 348,873 84,724 46,354 38,448
Electrical, electronic, and communications engineering 2,517,147 1,742,632 51,270 416,262 167,403 55,818 83,762
Industrial and manufacturing engineeringb 239,078 148,464 10,846 56,714 16,372 3,652 3,030
Mechanical engineering 1,435,828 860,745 55,454 279,079 169,124 33,587 37,839
Metallurgical and materials engineering 771,683 442,893 29,270 181,287 74,702 19,512 24,019
Engineering, nec 2,233,948 1,055,104 209,784 483,367 294,279 81,713 109,701
Non-S&E 4,160,919 1,119,712 303,220 2,098,351 124,023 387,208 128,405
Business management and business administration 649,856 71,124 24,306 424,700 51,615 44,262 33,849
Communication and communications technologies 168,861 36,732 6,316 96,493 3,544 21,318 4,458
Education 1,352,650 630,205 100,636 419,442 26,792 147,875 27,700
Humanities 435,079 54,957 11,134 294,087 3,621 52,003 19,277
Law 190,443 28,244 10,073 109,778 8,527 26,686 7,135
Social work 208,969 93,616 28,544 59,096 2,874 19,086 5,753
Visual and performing arts 142,445 10,342 16,367 99,765 2,016 8,892 5,063
Non-S&E, nec 1,012,616 194,492 105,844 594,990 25,034 67,086 25,170
nec = not elsewhere classified; S&E = science and engineering.
a As part of the reclassification of disciplines, some R&D field names have changed. See Technical Notes, Appendix A for details.
b Prior to FY 2016, expenditures for natural resources and conservation, materials science, anthropology, and industrial and manufacturing engineering were not collected separately. See Technical Notes, Appendix A for information detailing where these fields were previously reported.
NOTE: This table includes only institutions reporting $1 million or more in total R&D expenditures in FY 2015. Institutions reporting less than $1 million in total R&D expenditures in FY 2015 completed a shorter version of the survey form in FY 2016, and that form did not collect R&D expenditures by source and detailed field. For R&D expenditures by major field at institutions completing the shorter version of the survey, see table 82.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Higher Education Research and Development Survey, FY 2016.