1998 R&D Data Available

This past winter, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released most of the statistical tables compiled from the 1998 surveys of federal, academic and industrial research and development expenditures. Also included are early release tables presenting federal support for science and engineering to universities, colleges and nonprofit institutions. These early releases provide researchers and data users — including state science and technology programs completing innovation indices — the most timely statistics available on the topics. The full reports will be published on the web later this year. Following are brief summaries of early release tables currently available:



Academic R&D

The series of 74 tables of academic research and development expenditures for 1998 include eleven tables presenting the data geographically and/or by state and 34 tables by individual institution. Five more tables address R&D expenditures at university-administered federally funded research and development centers.

To obtain accurate historical data on academic research and development expenditures, since many institutions revise their prior-years’ data each year, NSF advises readers to use only the latest detailed statistical tables for FY 1998 and not data published earlier. The tables can be downloaded from http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs00406/start.htm

Federal Support for Science and Engineering

Additional information on university, college and nonprofit research institutions can be obtained from the 25 tables compiled from the annual survey of federal science and engineering support for these entities. Three tables provide the geographic distribution of federal obligations, while four more present the survey results for each institution by state. Separate tables highlight the topic 100 institutions and historically black colleges and universities. These tables can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs00409/start.htm

Industrial R&D

Research and development expenditures in industry are collected in the NSF annual survey of industrial R&D. While none of the ten tables characterize the data geographically, they do provide valuable insights on industrial research activities. These tables can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs00408/start.htm

Federal R&D

The final group of 12 tables present summary information for federal R&D expenditures in 1998, 1999 and 2000. As with industrial R&D, no tables address the geographic distribution of the findings. These tables can be downloaded at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs00407/start.htm