NSF: States’ increase R&D spending; surpasses $2.5 billion in FY 2017

States invested $1.1 billion into health-related R&D expenditures in FY 2017 according to the newest results from the annual survey of state government R&D, conducted by the National Science Foundation.  Increasing by 13 percent from the previous year, health-related R&D helped push overall state government spending on R&D up by 7 percent over the 2016 figures. State investments in energy-related R&D, on the other hand, dropped by 16.6 percent ($61 million) to a total of $307 million in FY 2017. The following chart shows the distribution of all states’ R&D expenditures across sectors or functions.

Only 21.7 percent of state R&D expenditures were derived from federal funding sources in FY 2017, a slight decrease from the 21.8 percent share provided by the federal government in FY 2016. 

States moved 16.7 percent more R&D funding — $148.8 million more — to higher education institutions in FY 2017 compared to the previous year, pushing the total above $1.0 billion for the first time. The share awarded to companies and individuals dropped $33 million to $450 million in FY 2017. Internal performance of R&D by state agencies increased by 6 percent to nearly $667 million.

Data tables are not available because of the government shutdown. The Issue Brief from which this summary is drawn may be found here.