Congressional Member’s Report Card
Congressional Member’s Report Card
Menu
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.
