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Funding for Higher Ed. R&D Increases to over $75 Billion

According to the NSF, funding of higher education R&D across all sources increased 4.7 percent in FY 2017 to $75.3 billion. This is the first time since FY 2009 that the Federal funding of R&D increased over two straight years. The $75.3 billion total represents the 903 degree-granting institutions that spent at least $150,000 each on R&D during the FY 2017 cycle. Of those, 644 institutions spent at least $1 million and make up about 99.8 percent of total R&D expenditures accounted for in FY 2017.

Of the FY 2017 total, approximately 62 percent went to basic research, and 28 percent went to applied research and 10 percent to experimental development. Thirty of the top institutions made up 42 percent of the total spent on R&D within FY 2017 for higher education, the same as FY 2016. Only two of the top 30 institutions reported at least a 1 percent decline in their R&D spending from the prior year. The same 30 institutions were the largest university R&D performers in FY 2016 and FY 2017.

National Center for Science and Education Statistics