Useful Stats: Academic R&D Expenditures for 2009 by State and Field of Study

About 60 percent of U.S. academic R&D spending support research in the life sciences, according to data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Engineering R&D, the second largest target of spending, accounted for 15.7 percent of total academic research expenditures. While California leads the country in total spending in every science and engineering field, the District of Columbia leads in per capita spending in life sciences, physical sciences, psychology and social sciences. Other leaders in per capita spending include Maryland (math and computer sciences, and engineering) and Alaska (environmental sciences).

SSTI has prepared a table showing total and per capita academic R&D expenditures by state and by field of study. The Excel version includes tabs for each field, which include state rank, per capita spending and rank of per capita spending. (See the June 20, 2011 issue for total 2004-09 expenditures and spending by funding source.)

Within the life sciences, medical sciences accounts for most academic R&D spending. In 2009, medical sciences made up 55.6 percent of life science spending and 33.2 percent of all academic expenditures. Though the District of Columbia leads in per capita life science spending, it does not have an academic institution in the top 10 for life science expenditures. The University of California, San Francisco ranks first in life science spending ($930 million), followed by Johns Hopkins University and Duke University.

Johns Hopkins University leads the country in engineering R&D spending, at $703 million for 2009. This figure was almost twice as high as the second-ranked institution, the campuses of the Georgia Institute of Technology ($379 million).

Other leading institutions include: University of California, San Diego for environmental sciences ($879 million), John Hopkins for math and computer sciences ($787 million), California Institute of Technology for physical sciences ($213 million), the campuses of Pennsylvania State University for psychology ($31 million) and the campuses of University of Michigan for social sciences ($114 million).