Recent Reports: Calfornia Analyzes R&D Activity on County Level

The California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency (TTCA) has released A County Level Analysis of California's R&D Activity 1993-1999, which, for the first time, offers California state and regional policymakers a county-by-county, instead of statewide or national, analysis of research and development trends.

The Analysis identifies $50.24 billion that California institutions secured in federal research support between the years 1993-99 (the latest data available). The Analysis includes unclassified research funding from 17 federal agencies on a county-by-county basis and details who performs the research including individual business, public and private educational institutions, federal government, nonprofit institutions, and state or local government.

Several interesting characteristics of the R&D landscape of California in the 1990s were identified and where the landscape may head into the future. Fifty-eight percent of the federally funded research in California was conducted by individual businesses, and 41 percent was conducted by universities and independent research institutes. Eight counties received 94 percent of the federal funding, with Los Angeles County having the largest share. San Diego County ranked second, followed by Santa Clara, Orange County, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Barbara.

California ranks first in both university and industrial R&D. Forty-four billion dollars worth of research is conducted annually in the state, which is 20 percent of the national total. This total is triple the amount spent in second-place New York. California is home to nearly 700 research centers in the physical sciences, several of which are one-of-a-kind facilities. The state has 87,000 doctoral scientists and engineers and awards more than 3,300 science and engineering doctorates each year. California residents also receive one of every five patents awarded by the U.S. Patent Office.

The report, funded by TTCA's Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) and the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance, is available through: http://www.Tech4ca.com