The Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) of the National Science Foundation publishes the biennial report, National Patterns of R&D; Resources. This report describes and analyzes current patterns of research and development (R&D;) in the United States, in relation to the historical record and the reported R&D; levels of other industrialized countries. For odd-numbered years, in which the report is not produced, current, annual statistics on national and international R&D; trends are first released in updates like this one. They are eventually published in the National Science Board's biennial report -- Science & Engineering Indicators -- early in the next year. Thus, the 1997 R&D; statistics provided here will be published in Science & Engineering Indicators: 1998. Later in 1998, the full report National Patterns of R&D; Resources: 1998 will provide the first set of R&D; statistics for the year 1998.

Tables 1-7 of this update contain NSF's most current information to date regarding R&D; expenditures in the U.S. The expenditure levels reported are broken out by:

source of funds	Federal government, nonfederal government, industry, academia, and nonprofit institutions
R&D; performer	Federal government, industry, academia, nonprofit institutions, and federally-funded research and development centers
character of work	basic research, applied research, and development
type of monetary unit	current dollars or constant 1992 dollars
geographic location	each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia

For the first four of these categories, annual data are provided that date back to the 1950s, which are amenable to time-series analysis of the economic history of R&D; in the U.S. Similarly, the geographic data, which are in reference to 1995, are amenable to cross-sectional analysis.

Table 8 supplies international R&D; data pertaining to the major industrialized "Group of Seven" countries (the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada). These data include total R&D; and non-defense R&D; in constant 1992 dollars (by purchasing power parity), and as a percent of national GDP.

This 1997 data update includes several notable changes in the R&D; series previously published:

Earlier publications provided a combination of fiscal-year expenditure amounts for governmental and academic R&D;, and calendar-year expenditure levels for industrial R&D; and R&D; performed by other nonprofit organizations. Aggregates of these amounts were then taken, reflecting neither a precise fiscal-year, nor calendar-year definition, but a general combination of both. Therefore, for greater consistency and clarity in measurement, and for ease of calculation (especially in adjustments for inflation), all R&D; levels for all performers have since been converted to a calendar-year basis.

The current data reflect more detailed information about R&D; by performer, source, and character of work. For example, for federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) administered by industrial and nonprofit organizations, the current data reflect annual breakdowns of R&D; by character of work, in contrast to previous data which reflected only total R&D; amounts for these performers. In addition, the new data include current-dollar and constant-dollar amounts for all components of national R&D; by performer, source, and character of work, while previous data included constant-dollar amounts only for aggregates of these components by performer or source.

Previous data were organized entirely in terms of elaborate spreadsheet formats. Such spreadsheets will continue to be provided, but the new data will also contain, as an additional feature, Table 7, which is a single, comprehensive spreadsheet file for the complete set of 175 national R&D; components, over the full time series 1953-1997. Table 7 is structured, in part, to facilitate the creation of a database file, through its importation into a database software package. The labeling of its columns (or "field labels"in database jargon) have already been established in a simple, numerical structure. Those labels give data users the ability to find, quickly and easily, any historical data that may interest them, in either Table 7 itself, or in any database file created from it.

A brief summary of the main findings for 1997 is provided in the SRS Data Brief, "R&D; Exceeds Expectations Again, Growing Faster than the U.S. Economy during the Last Three Years". Researchers may also wish to examine the previous report National Patterns of R&D; Resources: 1996 for more extensive analysis of historical R&D; trends, for more detailed breakdowns of R&D; expenditure (such as by academic fields of study or sector of private industry), or for explanations of methodological and technical aspects of how the R&D; statistics have been obtained and compiled. This level of information and analysis will again be provided in the forthcoming report National Patterns of R&D; Resources: 1998. Because of methodological changes made after 1996, researchers who utilize this and subsequent data releases are advised to consult the 1998 report when it becomes available.

Note that R&D; expenditure levels from Federal sources, presented here based on performer-reported surveys, differ from the Federal R&D; funding totals reported by the Federal agencies that provide those funds. During the past several years, these differences have widened. The difference in the Federal R&D; totals appear to be concentrated in the funding of industry by the Department of Defense. See National Patterns of R&D; Resources: 1996 (NSF 96-333) and the forthcoming National Patterns of R&D; Resources: 1998 for detailed discussion and documentation of these differences.

Excel	(.pdf)	Title
Table 1A		National expenditures for R&D;: Performance by sector, broken down by sources of funds: 1990-97
Table 1B		National expenditures for R&D;: Sources of funds by sector, broken down by performers that use those funds: 1990-97
Table 2A		National expenditures for Basic Research: Performance by sector, broken down by sources of funds: 1990-97
Table 2B		National expenditures for Basic Research: Sources of funds by sector, broken down by performers that use those funds: 1990-97
Table 3A		National expenditures for Applied Research: Performance by sector, broken down by sources of funds: 1990-97
Table 3B		National expenditures for Apllied Research: Sources of funds by sector, broken down by performers that use those funds: 1990-97
Table 4A		National expenditures for Development: Performance by sector, broken down by sources of funds: 1990-97
Table 4B		National expenditures for Development: Sources of funds by sector, broken down by performers that use those funds: 1990-97
Table 5		Gross Domestic Product and R&D; (Federally-funded, Nonfederal, and Total): Comparative Measures of Growth: 1990-97
Table 6		Geographic distribution of US R&D; expenditures: Performance by sector, broken down by sources of funds: 1995
Table 7		Historical database for National Patterns: Columns 1-175
Table 8		International R&D; expenditures (total and non-defense) in constant dollars and as a percentage of GDP: 1981-97

Last Modified: Wednesday, 26-Jul-00 12:56:01Comments to srsweb@nsf.gov