Research and Development Statistics
The Research and Development Statistics Program (RDS) is responsible for surveys, studies, reports and analyses on the size and health of the U.S. research and development (R&D) enterprise. RDS focuses on R&D funded and performed by Government, industry, and universities. Four annual surveys and two biennial surveys provide the core of information on these topics:
- The survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development collects information about the characteristics and geographic distribution of all Federal R&D funding from the approximately 100 Federal agencies and subagencies that obligate funds for R&D.
- The survey of Federal Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions collects information about Federal obligations to individual academic and nonprofit
institutions
by the 15 Federal agencies that provide virtually all Federal R&D funds to academic institutions.
- The survey of Research and Development in Industry collects information on R&D expenditures and employment of scientists and engineers from a nationally representative sample of
about 23,000 companies (starting with the 1992 survey), including both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing companies.
- The survey of Academic Science and Engineering R&D Expenditures collects data from a sample of about 460
institutions of higher education that grant science and engineering (S&E) degrees and perform a minimum level of separately budgeted R&D.
- The survey of Scientific and Engineering Research Facilities collects and analyzes data on the availability, condition, need, cost, and funding
sources of facilities from a sample of 303 research-performing colleges and universities.
- The survey of Academic Research Instruments and Instrumentation Needs is a multistage assessment of instrumentation conditions based on information about more than 11,000 instruments from nearly 1,200 S&E departments at 55
colleges and universities and 24 medical schools.
Periodic and special publications produced in the group include the following:
- National Patterns of R&D Resources
This report presents trend data on the Nation's overall R&D effort. It includes information on R&D expenditures by source of funds, sector of performance, and character of work. It also presents data on defense and nondefense R&D trends, the State
distribution of R&D performance, the number of scientists and engineers employed in R&D, and international comparisons.
- Federal R&D Funding by Budget Function
This report presents a historical series on Federal R&D budget authorizations grouped within the Office of Management and Budget's functional categories such as defense, health, space, and energy. The data are collected from all Federal agencies
that provide R&D information included in the President's annual Budget of the United States Government.
The program maintains the master list of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and associated information mandated in
the Federal Acquisition Regulations. The unit also produces (1) institutional profiles that include data about S&E research and education for individual doctorate-granting institutions and for individual schools with S&E departments that grant a
master's degree; (2) S&E State profiles that provide extensive data and rankings for States' S&E and R&D resource base available from SRS surveys and for broader economic variables from non-SRS
sources, and (3) public-use data tapes for the RDS Academic and Federal surveys.
