ISTC releases 2022 R&D Index

The Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) released its 2022 R&D Index earlier this week. The 2022 R&D Index, which is one component of ISTC’s Illinois Innovation Index, assesses Illinois’s capacity for innovation and economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The last R&D Index released by ISTC was in 2019.

Among the key findings of the report:

• Illinois ranked 10th in the nation in terms of total R&D activity at universities, Federally Funded R&D Centers (FFRDCs), businesses, and other institutions.
• Statewide R&D activity increased by $1.1 billion between 2018 and 2019, according to NSF data.
• R&D intensity in Illinois increased between 2018 and 2019 to 2.05 percent.

Illinois companies spent $14.1 billion on R&D and patent production in 2019, while research funding at universities in Illinois was $2.8 billion in FY 2020. These were both considerable increases from previous years. When it comes to industry and university collaboration in FY 2020, there was $169 million spent by businesses in university research, a decrease of $10 million from 2019.

The 2022 R&D Index recommends actions that lawmakers can pursue to position Illinois as a leading state for R&D. These include the continuation of stable and ongoing funding for public universities in Illinois, as well as establishing R&D tax credits as a permanent benefit for innovation in the business sector. Partnerships between institutions in Illinois, which the report mentions are relatively underutilized in the state, are also recommended by ISTC to meet R&D goals.

More information on ISTC’s 2022 R&D Index can be accessed here.