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Useful Stats: Environmental Science Spending at U.S. Universities, FY2003-12

April 16, 2014
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With Earth Day just around the corner, SSTI is taking a closer look at environmental science research spending in the states.  Even as climate change emerged as a key political topic during the first decade of the millennium, spending on environmental research at American colleges and universities declined as a percentage of all R&D, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey. Between 2003-12, environmental science expenditures fell from 5.3 percent of all R&D expenditures to 4.8 percent. California universities spent the most in FY12, but Wyoming and Nevada devoted the highest percentage of their R&D spending on environmental science.  The District of Columbia and Maryland spent the most per capita.

During the FY2003-12 period, environmental science academic R&D expenditures grew about 45 percent, but did not keep pace with overall growth in expenditures. Total R&D expenditures grew by about 59 percent in those years. All of the subfields of environmental science increased their spending levels, but only the earth sciences increased their share of all academic research. Earth sciences overtook oceanographic studies as the leading area of study for the first time in FY2012, representing 1.8 percent of all spending. At the same time, oceanography fell from 1.9 percent of expenditures to 1.6 percent.

Because of its overall lead in academic R&D spending, California also leads in environmental science expenditures, which totaled $396 million in FY12. National expenditures totaled $3.2 billion. The second tier of states for environmental research includes Massachusetts, Colorado and Texas, which each invested $240 million to $260 million in FY12. Of these states, Colorado placed the greatest focus on environmental studies, investing 18.4 percent of its total R&D expenditures on research in the field.  Strong programs at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, and University of Colorado, Boulder, led the state’s environmental research efforts.

Among the country’s top twenty states for R&D, Maryland and Massachusetts spent the most by far on environmental science per capita.  Maryland’s research was led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Johns Hopkins University.  Massachusetts’ strongest environmental studies center, by a large margin, was the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The second tier for per capita spending on environmental studies in research-focused states includes North Carolina, New York, Colorado and Wisconsin.

SSTI has prepared two tables: the first showing academic R&D expenditures for environmental science and its related subfields from FY2003-12, and the second showing environmental science R&D expenditures by state for FY2012. Download the tables in Excel (xlsx) format…

 

 

Higher Education Environmental Science R&D Expenditures, by R&D Field: FY 2003–12 (in thousands of dollars)
Field 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
All R&D Fields 41,470,419 44,838,918 47,535,201 49,645,341 51,590,017 54,113,750 57,288,415 61,257,398 65,274,235 65,774,524
Environmental sciences 2,194,060 2,353,383 2,554,468 2,601,097 2,681,473 2,798,750 2,923,404 2,991,911 3,159,158 3,172,613
      Atmospheric sciences 396,134 414,583 460,020 507,583 446,184 423,055 416,826 429,355 480,762 476,210
      Earth sciences 723,517 827,988 919,718 897,499 910,886 950,631 1,019,429 1,085,000 1,139,823 1,166,960
      Oceanography 769,831 778,841 812,061 839,504 992,484 1,051,136 1,077,634 1,021,961 1,049,765 1,021,715
      Environmental sciences, nec 304,578 331,971 362,669 356,511 331,919 373,928 409,515 455,595 488,808 507,728

 

Higher Education Environmental Science R&D Expenditures, Share of All R&D and Per Capita: FY 2012 (Dollars in thousands)
State All R&D Expenditures Environmental Sciences Environmental Science as a Percent of All R&D Environmental Sciences Spending Per Capita
United States 65,774,524 3,172,613 4.82% 0.21
Alabama 832,871 14,454 1.74% 0.17
Alaska 181,983 62,738 34.47% 0.25
Arizona 1,039,424 66,108 6.36% 0.16
Arkansas 289,364 3,315 1.15% 0.10
California 8,389,666 396,255 4.72% 0.22
Colorado 1,338,888 245,675 18.35% 0.26
Connecticut 946,826 14,350 1.52% 0.26
Delaware 185,842 21,591 11.62% 0.20
District of Columbia 501,534 4,342 0.87% 0.79
Florida 2,184,114 142,752 6.54% 0.11
Georgia 1,865,603 30,359 1.63% 0.19
Hawaii 335,704 83,610 24.91% 0.24
Idaho 146,326 13,779 9.42% 0.09
Illinois 2,363,486 24,002 1.02% 0.18
Indiana 1,306,462 12,492 0.96% 0.20
Iowa 718,281 4,770 0.66% 0.23
Kansas 527,122 21,625 4.10% 0.18
Kentucky 587,240 4,927 0.84% 0.13
Louisiana 699,228 41,872 5.99% 0.15
Maine 120,072 21,239 17.69% 0.09
Maryland 3,367,883 144,815 4.30% 0.57
Massachusetts 3,212,502 258,055 8.03% 0.48
Michigan 2,235,689 48,248 2.16% 0.23
Minnesota 864,938 31,043 3.59% 0.16
Mississippi 476,078 29,733 6.25% 0.16
Missouri 1,096,993 17,040 1.55% 0.18
Montana 196,721 18,604 9.46% 0.20
Nebraska 438,302 5,719 1.30% 0.24
Nevada 153,325 53,670 35.00% 0.06
New Hampshire 415,691 69,419 16.70% 0.31
New Jersey 1,114,527 60,893 5.46% 0.13
New Mexico 400,952 18,031 4.50% 0.19
New York 5,361,113 181,528 3.39% 0.27
North Carolina 2,682,081 82,490 3.08% 0.28
North Dakota 215,642 12,334 5.72% 0.31
Ohio 2,128,968 21,861 1.03% 0.18
Oklahoma 437,180 41,700 9.54% 0.11
Oregon 722,421 70,395 9.74% 0.19
Pennsylvania 3,231,147 72,293 2.24% 0.25
Rhode Island 493,428 56,861 11.52% 0.47
South Carolina 636,534 20,260 3.18% 0.13
South Dakota 129,200 4,001 3.10% 0.15
Tennessee 1,025,283 13,443 1.31% 0.16
Texas 4,651,322 243,446 5.23% 0.18
Utah 622,244 14,076 2.26% 0.22
Vermont 120,226 1,962 1.63% 0.19
Virginia 1,379,440 66,949 4.85% 0.17
Washington 1,475,365 172,918 11.72% 0.21
West Virginia 196,318 6,364 3.24% 0.11
Wisconsin 1,483,982 62,814 4.23% 0.26
Wyoming 65,611 28,797 43.89% 0.11
Guam 6,131 1,585 25.85% NA
Puerto Rico 151,532 10,669 7.04% 0.04
Virgin Islands 25,719 342 1.33% NA

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useful stats, nsf, higher ed, r&dFile Stats Env Sci by State.xlsx