Congressional Member’s Report Card

Congressional Member’s Report Card

Doubting Science. Why?

Global Rankings - Science & Engineering

U.S. FUNDING TRENDS – BENCHMARKS

  • The federal government, the second-largest source of R&D funding (21%) , supports R&D performed by all sectors. Based on preliminary 2019 estimates, the federal government funded 50% of the R&D performed by the higher education sector, 31% by nonprofits, and 6% by businesses.
  • The majority of R&D performance is in experimental development (65%) and applied research (19%), and the business sector dominates in both. With its focus on new and improved goods, services, and processes, the business sector performs 90% of experimental development, and 58% of applied research.

Although federal funding of R&D increased , the share of total R&D funded by the federal government declined from 31% in 2010 to an estimated 21% in 2019. This decline occurred across all research types and sectors.

U.S. R&D PERFORMANCE FUNDED BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

U.S. R&D PERFORMANCE FUNDED BY SECTOR TYPE