Federal Funding for R&D, by Selected Budget Function statistics

[In millions of dollars (15,339 represents $15,339,000,000). For fiscal years ending in year shown; see text, Section 9, State and Local Government. Excludes R&D plant. Represents budget authority. Functions shown are those for which $1 billion or more was authorized since 1995]


Function	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000,
																														prel.	prel.

CURRENT DOLLARS

Total ¹	15,339	15,543	16,496	16,800	17,410	19,039	20,780	23,450	25,976	28,208	29,739	33,735	36,115	38,768	44,214	49,887	53,249	57,069	59,106	62,115	63,781	65,898	68,398	69,884	68,331	68,791	69,049	71,653	73,569	76,886	75,415
8 functions, percent of total	96.6	96.0	96.5	96.0	96.6	96.6	96.8	97.1	96.9	96.7	96.5	97.3	97.9	98.1	98.1	98.3	98.3	98.2	98.3	98.2	98.0	97.9	98.0	98.1	97.9	97.7	98.0	98.1	97.7	97.6	97.5
National defense	7,981	8,110	8,902	9,002	9,016	9,679	10,430	11,864	12,899	13,791	14,946	18,413	22,070	24,936	29,287	33,698	36,926	39,152	40,099	40,665	39,925	39,328	40,061	41,249	37,764	37,204	37,801	39,591	39,823	40,387	37,710
Health	1,084	1,288	1,547	1,585	2,069	2,170	2,351	2,629	2,968	3,401	3,694	3,871	3,869	4,298	4,779	5,418	5,565	6,556	7,076	7,773	8,308	9,226	10,055	10,280	10,993	11,407	11,867	12,670	13,576	15,479	15,824
Space research and technology	3,606	3,048	2,932	2,824	2,702	2,764	3,130	2,832	2,939	3,136	2,738	3,111	2,584	2,134	2,300	2,725	2,894	3,398	3,683	4,555	5,765	6,511	6,744	6,988	7,414	7,916	7,844	7,844	8,198	8,239	8,422
Energy ²	574	556	574	630	759	1,363	1,649	2,562	3,134	3,461	3,603	3,501	3,012	2,578	2,581	2,389	2,286	2,053	2,126	2,419	2,726	2,953	3,153	2,677	2,873	2,844	2,521	2,372	948	1,164	1,348
General science ²	452	513	625	658	749	813	858	974	1,050	1,119	1,233	1,340	1,359	1,502	1,676	1,862	1,873	2,042	2,160	2,373	2,410	2,635	2,659	2,691	2,712	2,794	2,846	2,944	4,360	4,739	4,951
Natural resources and environment	340	416	479	554	516	624	683	753	904	1,010	999	1,061	965	952	963	1,059	1,062	1,133	1,160	1,255	1,386	1,582	1,688	1,802	2,062	1,988	1,802	1,886	1,855	1,928	1,944
Transportation	535	728	558	572	693	635	631	708	768	798	887	869	791	876	1,040	1,030	917	908	896	1,064	1,045	1,231	1,523	1,703	1,888	1,833	1,795	1,785	1,833	1,731	1,840
Agriculture	238	259	294	308	313	342	383	457	501	552	585	659	693	745	762	836	815	822	882	907	950	1,052	1,155	1,152	1,193	1,194	1,176	1,203	1,249	1,352	1,522

CONSTANT (1996) dollars ²

Total ¹	53,446	51,638	52,120	50,755	49,111	48,843	49,725	52,053	53,993	54,393	52,804	54,640	54,753	56,251	61,838	67,579	70,454	73,561	73,809	74,675	73,872	73,604	74,670	74,408	71,119	70,116	69,049	70,455	71,426	73,688	71,213
8 functions, percent of total	96.6	96.0	96.5	96.0	96.6	96.6	96.8	97.1	96.9	96.7	96.5	97.3	97.9	98.1	98.1	98.3	98.3	98.2	98.3	98.2	98.0	97.9	98.0	98.1	96.0	97.7	98.0	98.1	97.7	97.6	97.5
National defense	27,808	26,944	28,126	27,196	25,433	24,831	24,958	26,335	26,811	26,593	26,538	29,823	33,460	36,181	40,961	45,649	48,857	50,467	50,074	48,888	46,242	43,927	43,735	43,919	39,305	37,921	37,801	38,929	38,663	38,707	35,609
Health	3,777	4,279	4,888	4,789	5,836	5,567	5,626	5,836	6,169	6,558	6,559	6,270	5,866	6,236	6,684	7,339	7,363	8,451	8,836	9,345	9,622	10,305	10,977	10,945	11,442	11,627	11,867	12,458	13,181	14,835	14,942
Space research and technology ²	12,564	10,126	9,264	8,532	7,622	7,091	7,490	6,286	6,109	6,047	4,862	5,039	3,918	3,096	3,217	3,691	3,829	4,380	4,599	5,476	6,677	7,272	7,362	7,440	7,716	8,068	7,844	7,713	7,959	7,896	7,953
Energy ²	2,000	1,847	1,814	1,903	2,141	3,497	3,946	5,687	6,514	6,674	6,397	5,671	4,566	3,741	3,610	3,236	3,025	2,646	2,655	2,908	3,157	3,298	3,442	2,850	2,990	2,899	2,521	2,332	920	1,116	1,273
General science	1,575	1,704	1,975	1,988	2,113	2,086	2,053	2,162	2,182	2,158	2,189	2,170	2,060	2,179	2,344	2,522	2,478	2,632	2,697	2,853	2,791	2,943	2,903	2,865	2,823	2,848	2,846	2,895	4,233	4,542	4,675
Natural resources and environment	1,185	1,382	1,513	1,674	1,456	1,601	1,634	1,671	1,879	1,948	1,774	1,718	1,463	1,381	1,347	1,435	1,405	1,460	1,449	1,509	1,605	1,767	1,843	1,919	2,146	2,026	1,802	1,854	1,801	1,848	1,836
Transportation	1,864	2,419	1,763	1,728	1,955	1,629	1,510	1,572	1,596	1,539	1,575	1,408	1,199	1,271	1,455	1,395	1,213	1,170	1,119	1,279	1,210	1,375	1,663	1,813	1,965	1,868	1,795	1,755	1,780	1,659	1,737
Agriculture	829	860	929	931	883	877	916	1,014	1,041	1,064	1,039	1,067	1,051	1,081	1,066	1,132	1,078	1,060	1,101	1,090	1,100	1,175	1,261	1,227	1,242	1,217	1,176	1,183	1,213	1,296	1,437
NOTE: 1996 constant dollar deflator	0.287	0.301	0.317	0.331	0.355	0.3898	0.418	0.451	0.481	0.519	0.5632	0.6174	0.6596	0.6892	0.715	0.7382	0.7558	0.7758	0.8008	0.8318	0.8634	0.8953	0.916	0.9392	0.9608	0.9811	1.000	1.017	1.030	1.043	1.059

1 Includes other functions, not shown separately.
2 Beginning in FY 1998, a number of DOE programs were reclassified from energy (270).
3 Based on gross domestic product implicit price deflator.

Source: U.S. National Science Foundation, Federal R&D Funding by Federal R&D Funding by Budget Function, annual. Most recent report NSF 99-315.

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/frdfbf/start.htm * Definitions

Research and Development As used in this report, R&D refers to researchboth basic and appliedand development activities in the sciences and engineering.

Research is a systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied. Research is classified as either basic or applied according to the objective of the sponsoring agency.

In basic research the objective of the sponsoring agency is to gain fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications toward processes or products in mind. In applied research the objective of the sponsoring agency is to gain knowledge or understanding necessary for determining means by which a recognized and specific need may be met.

Development is the systematic use of the knowledge or understanding gained from research directed toward the production of useful materials, devices, systems, or methods, including design, development, and improvement of prototypes and new processes. It excludes quality control, routine product testing, and production.

Funds for conducting R&D include those for personnel, program supervision, and administrative support directly associated with R&D activities. Expendable or movable equipment needed to conduct R&De.g., microscopes or spectrometersis also included.

This report does not include data on R&D plant fundsi.e., funds for R&D facilities such as reactors, wind tunnels, or particle accelerators or for the construction, repair, or alteration of such facilities. Also excluded are all non-R&D activities performed within budget functions that conduct R&D and all functions in which no R&D is conducted.

Budget Authority, Obligations, and Outlays The Federal R&D funding data presented here are, with a few noted exceptions, provided in budget authority. Budget authority is used because it is the initial budget parameter for congressional action on the President's proposed budget. Budget authority imposes a ceiling on obligations and outlays; obligations and outlays flow from budget authority.

Budget authority is the primary source of legal authorization to enter into obligations that will result in outlays. Budget authority is most commonly granted in the form of appropriations by the congressional committees assigned to determine the budget for each function. Obligations represent the amounts for orders placed, contracts awarded, services received, and similar transactions during a given period, regardless of when the funds were appropriated and when the future payment of money is required. Outlays represent the amounts for checks issued and cash payments made during a given period, regardless of when the funds were appropriated or obligated.

Budget Functions

All activities covered by the Federal budget, including R&D, are classified into 20 broad functional categories. The Federal budget total comprises funding for these 20 functions. An agency's activities are not necessarily included in only one function. Instead, the programs of one agency typically are distributed across functions, and each function often includes programs from multiple agencies. No overlap occurs between functions or between the various agency programs within those functions. In a few cases components of a major national effort are funded through multiple functions, such as the Human Genome mapping effort (health and energy).

Notably, each specific R&D activity is assigned to only one function area, consistent with the official codes used in budget documents, even though the R&D activity may address several functional concerns. For example, except for those of the Army Corps of Engineers, all R&D activities sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) are classified as defense, even though some activities have secondary objectives such as space or health. Moreover, only R&D funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor is classified in the health function category. Yet some R&D funding, from at least three additional agenciesDoD and the Departments of Energy and Veterans Affairshas a major health component.

The functional categories and definitions used in this report are the same as those used in the Federal budget, with one exception. R&D activities categorized as general science, space, and technology (function 250) are reported separately here. Subfunction 251 contains R&D activities for general science and basic research, and subfunction 252 contains R&D activities for space research and technology. Not all federally sponsored basic research is categorized in function 251, however; some basic research is included in the remaining 19 functional categories.

Five Federal budget functionsmedicare (function 570), social security (function 650), net interest (function 900), allowances (function 920), and undistributed offsetting receipts (function 950)have no R&D components. Consequently, they are not discussed in this report, except where R&D is described as a proportion of total Federal budget authority.

The Agency/Function Crosswalk on page 4 listsby name and function codethe 16 individual R&D functions funded by agencies. * Data Sources

Within the overall Federal Budget there is no separately identified R&D budget as such; nor are most appropriations for R&D so labeled except in the case of certain program areas, such as in defense, energy, health, and environment. Consequently, most funds for R&D are not line items in an agency's budget submission but are included within general program funding. To determine funding for Federal R&D, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires agencies whose annual R&D funding is greater than $10 million to submit data on their R&D programs as part of their annual budget submissions. Specifically, the agencies provide datareported, in accordance with OMB Circular A-11, Max Schedule C, "Research and Development Activities"on funding levels for basic research, applied research, development, R&D facilities, and R&D support to universities and colleges.

The data in this report represent agencies' best estimates of actual and proposed Federal funding for R&D collected during the period February 2 through April 30, 1998. These data are based primarily on information provided to OMB by 23 agencies and account for more than 99 percent of all federally sponsored R&D activities. Also incorporated in this report is R&D information that became available from the individual agencies after the administration's budget was prepared and reported in the Budget of the United States Government. Such information consists of agency budget justification documents submitted to Congress and supplemental-program-specific information obtained from agency budget and program staff through mid-May 1998. Therefore, budget numbers for individual activities, programs, or agencies may differ slightly from those published in the President's budget or agency budget documents.

*

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/982_federal_funding_for_r_d_by.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.