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Table 10. Federally financed higher education R&D expenditures, by R&D field: FYs 2009–18

(Dollars in thousands)

Field 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
All R&D fieldsa 33,442,570 37,477,582 40,768,251 40,142,223 39,445,931 37,962,038 37,848,828 38,778,209 40,236,990 41,945,082
Science 27,541,142 30,791,579 33,373,047 32,497,010 31,764,827 30,401,000 30,320,005 31,088,669 32,199,326 33,611,757
Computer and information sciences 1,106,879 1,175,343 1,294,280 1,360,430 1,552,301 1,389,975 1,419,059 1,442,763 1,497,675 1,630,640
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences 1,890,417 2,013,754 2,181,206 2,203,399 2,094,690 2,049,514 2,065,967 1,993,359 2,043,921 2,048,581
Atmospheric science and meteorology 322,239 338,687 383,740 389,095 397,620 389,374 453,710 513,275 503,347 485,737
Geological and earth sciences 645,073 735,094 799,906 818,785 767,770 740,609 699,060 606,060 687,281 699,305
Ocean sciences and marine sciences 711,758 666,930 705,852 673,888 662,219 663,079 647,119 665,139 656,802 648,156
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences, nec 211,347 273,043 291,708 321,631 267,081 256,452 266,078 208,885 196,491 215,383
Life sciences 19,322,794 21,702,125 23,663,408 22,753,602 22,227,278 21,269,620 21,170,860 21,796,186 22,753,969 23,947,015
Agricultural sciences 863,378 957,710 1,042,740 1,137,729 1,111,006 1,083,562 1,095,769 978,030 980,138 956,060
Biological and biomedical sciences 6,621,605 7,579,196 8,213,534 7,741,440 7,604,786 7,238,745 7,103,518 7,706,834 8,186,973 8,589,048
Health sciences 11,057,535 12,068,659 13,184,595 12,681,515 12,287,408 11,743,066 11,731,281 12,095,429 12,684,793 13,453,146
Natural resources and conservationb na na na na na na na 315,195 270,084 314,948
Life sciences, nec 780,276 1,096,560 1,222,539 1,192,918 1,224,078 1,204,247 1,240,292 700,698 631,981 633,813
Mathematics and statistics 368,730 417,775 458,966 490,534 464,608 441,414 424,700 444,460 437,244 457,150
Physical sciences 2,963,115 3,384,275 3,527,330 3,474,586 3,311,037 3,155,549 3,111,705 3,286,236 3,378,892 3,471,660
Astronomy and astrophysics 387,905 405,954 408,963 535,180 400,440 380,907 403,053 417,929 441,533 454,394
Chemistry 1,037,432 1,200,120 1,243,767 1,213,495 1,134,945 1,080,365 1,095,125 1,097,525 1,098,080 1,136,317
Materials scienceb na na na na na na na 111,802 142,466 162,048
Physics 1,360,805 1,557,421 1,660,377 1,532,612 1,567,937 1,509,986 1,463,153 1,523,705 1,543,514 1,564,866
Physical sciences, nec 176,973 220,780 214,223 193,299 207,715 184,291 150,374 135,275 153,299 154,035
Psychology 656,196 758,520 835,448 859,500 776,402 750,926 761,940 762,678 761,121 761,904
Social sciences 854,739 901,009 947,176 915,874 897,604 921,561 919,930 897,813 931,536 945,478
Anthropologyb na na na na na na na 39,601 38,713 43,407
Economics 121,542 127,858 148,737 144,446 137,236 138,950 149,655 112,373 110,633 102,053
Political science and government 137,282 152,547 148,643 141,267 143,375 145,742 136,535 103,681 103,923 98,089
Sociology, demography, and population studies 201,874 226,462 232,834 247,739 237,479 251,832 262,275 268,810 280,623 285,375
Social sciences, nec 394,041 394,142 416,962 382,422 379,514 385,037 371,465 373,348 397,644 416,554
Sciences, nec 378,272 438,778 465,233 439,085 440,907 422,441 445,844 465,174 394,968 349,329
Engineering 5,034,998 5,718,852 6,275,548 6,442,986 6,499,507 6,424,577 6,458,952 6,584,254 6,831,218 7,093,291
Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering 431,389 466,991 504,536 501,722 513,134 474,623 516,051 623,571 659,840 678,087
Bioengineering and biomedical engineering 385,536 470,432 515,611 552,555 556,651 606,943 606,696 651,401 725,035 787,000
Chemical engineering 359,726 421,269 490,918 504,753 478,542 471,824 463,033 467,663 471,877 461,674
Civil engineering 400,280 460,880 544,992 570,303 578,390 577,964 570,426 591,717 557,709 592,396
Electrical, electronic, and communications engineering 1,200,129 1,373,311 1,511,458 1,601,917 1,642,771 1,742,336 1,771,589 1,742,624 1,891,574 1,981,799
Industrial and manufacturing engineeringb na na na na na na na 148,464 187,896 306,696
Mechanical engineering 800,903 953,244 1,032,641 1,035,551 1,061,270 946,802 957,354 860,815 937,990 993,683
Metallurgical and materials engineering 389,255 429,412 455,722 462,246 465,657 494,405 501,195 442,893 441,281 464,981
Engineering, nec 1,067,780 1,143,313 1,219,670 1,213,939 1,203,092 1,109,680 1,072,608 1,055,106 958,016 826,975
Non-S&Ea 866,430 967,151 1,119,656 1,202,227 1,181,597 1,136,461 1,069,871 1,105,286 1,206,446 1,240,034
Business management and business administration 67,456 86,440 99,661 96,659 95,227 77,257 69,834 68,257 69,050 71,706
Communication and communications technologies 29,609 41,339 53,266 53,337 51,060 54,337 42,463 36,747 61,277 34,279
Education 474,571 535,744 632,117 689,060 666,586 662,782 642,777 619,347 645,817 673,774
Humanities 60,248 57,510 61,420 67,692 76,804 75,116 59,964 57,150 59,034 49,997
Law 23,206 19,338 27,388 24,575 22,522 23,734 24,416 26,074 33,018 51,134
Social work 61,899 94,422 105,661 109,359 111,693 109,184 101,669 95,320 110,718 114,073
Visual and performing arts 4,193 4,843 6,521 10,435 7,039 9,050 8,607 8,587 8,336 10,829
Non-S&E, nec 145,248 127,515 133,622 151,110 150,666 125,001 120,141 193,804 219,196 234,242
na = not applicable; separate data for natural resources and conservation, materials science, anthropology, and industrial and manufacturing engineering were not collected prior to FY 2016.
nec = not elsewhere classified; S&E = science and engineering.
a Prior to FY 2010, some institution totals for all fields of R&D expenditures may be lower-bound estimates because the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics did not attempt to estimate for nonresponse on the non-S&E R&D expenditures item prior to FY 2010.
b Prior to FY 2016, expenditures for natural resources and conservation, materials science, anthropology, and industrial and manufacturing engineering were not collected separately. See the FY 2016 Technical Notes, Appendix A (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/herd/2016) for information detailing where these fields were previously reported.
NOTES: FY 2016 R&D expenditure amounts in various fields may show increases or decreases from amounts reported in FY 2015 because of the reclassification of disciplines. See the FY 2016 Technical Notes, Appendix A (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/herd/2016) for specific details about discipline changes.
SOURCE: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, Higher Education Research and Development Survey.