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Useful Stats: A quarter-century look reveals relatively flat NIH R&D awards

January 30, 2025
By: Conor Gowder

SSTI’s new analysis of NIH data reveals the agency’s external R&D spending per award has been essentially treading water for the past 25 years in terms of real dollars—rising just 4% since FY 2000 when adjusted for inflation. This slow growth comes despite the crucial role NIH funding plays in technology-based economic development (TBED) policies across many states, particularly in the biomedical and life sciences. However, NIH funding remains a major economic driver as the world’s largest funder of biomedical and behavioral research, having generated nearly $2.50 of economic activity for every dollar spent in FY 2023, according to NIH estimates. While these awards support innovation, academic research, and regional economies, their purchasing power has eroded over time, barely keeping pace with inflation.

This edition of Useful Stats examines national and state-level trends in NIH awards (count and funding) from FY 2000 through FY 2024 using data from NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT).

 

Brief overview of national NIH award data

Before diving into state-level NIH awards, it is important to establish a relative baseline by looking at national trends. Figure 1 and Figure 2 compare award funding and average funding per award, respectively, in current and constant 2000s USD (USD inflation-adjusted to the year 2000’s value), for consideration in creating or modifying state and university programs or policies to encourage future growth in NIH funding.

Figure 1: Constant (2000s) and current USD NIH award funding, FY 2000-2024

 

Total award funding has increased each FY from 2014 through 2023, before a 2% decrease from FY 2023 into FY 2024. However, when inflation adjusted, a less positive trend is revealed: each year since the onset of the pandemic, NIH award funding has dropped in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, likely due to significantly higher than normal inflation values. However, that does not mean award funding has decreased in the long run, with real dollars increasing 40% in the 25 years since FY 2000 (relative to the 156% increase in current USD).

As the total budget for NIH has grown, the number of NIH awards has also increased from FY 2000 to FY 2024, up 35% from approximately 48,000 to 65,000. Most of this growth is fairly recent, with nearly 5,000 more awards in FY 2024 than in FY 2019 and 10,000 more in FY 2024 than in FY 2017. Around that time, NIH made a strategic commitment to strengthen the nation’s life science research capacity by expanding the pool of participating research entities and principal investigators.

Figure 2: Constant (2000s) and current USD average per NIH award

 

In addition to making more awards, NIH has increased the average funding per award in current USD as its budget grew. In FY 2000, each award was funded for an average of just over $300,000, nearly half of FY 2024’s $573,000, for a 90% growth over the 25-year period.

Inflation consumes roughly 85% of that growth, however. Notably, there was a large jump in real average funding per award from FY 2019 to FY 2020 (approximately $349,000 to $372,000) during the initial phase of fighting the pandemic. Since FY 2000, real average funding has consistently dropped down, now sitting at just under $314,000 in FY 2024—just 4% above the average funding per award in FY 2000.

In real dollars, the average funding per award in FY 2024 represents the third lowest value in the last quarter-century, above only FYs 2001 and 2000.

 

NIH awards count and funding by state

Award count

The states with the most NIH awards in FY 2024 were California (8,872), New York (6,204), Massachusetts (5,783), Pennsylvania (4,115), and Texas (3,680). An additional 15 states, for a total of 20, received more than 1,000 awards during FY 2024. In other words, just 20 states accounted for 86% of the total national award count in FY 2024.

Ten states received less than 100 awards, with Wyoming (20) and Alaska (24) receiving the fewest.

With a few notable exceptions, the distribution roughly corresponds with state populations. Massachusetts and Maryland, 16th and 18th in 2024 populations, as estimated by the Census Bureau, are some of the most notable outliers at third and seventh in total awards. Conversely, New Jersey appears to be an exception on the other end of the spectrum, with the 11th largest population in 2024, but 22nd most NIH awards.

Refer to Figure 3 below for more details on these trends and more. Figure 3 is broken down into quintiles, each with an equal fifth of the data. This breakdown allows for easy comparison between states for each year.

Figure 3: Count of NIH awards by state, FY 2000-2024

 

As revealed by the data in the previous section, the quantity of NIH awards has been on a steady uptrend over the past decade; a set of relative trends can be established by looking at each state’s share of the nation’s total awards. California, for example, received 14% of awards in FY 2000, while the top five states received 45% and the top 20 received 64%. Over time, these proportions have remained fairly stable.

Figure 4, below, can be used to compare state share of national award funding for each FY between 2000 and 2024. Up to five states can be compared simultaneously, selectable through the “Enter series to show” search bar beneath the graphic’s title.

Figure 4: State share of national award count, FY 2000-2024

 

Award funding

When looking at award funding, the states with the highest values in FY 2024 were California ($5.2 billion in current USD), New York and Massachusetts ($3.5 billion each), Maryland ($2.4 billion), and Pennsylvania ($2.2 billion). Eleven states, including those mentioned above, received over a billion in NIH award funding in FY 2024.

Conversely, 12 states received less than $100 million in award funding. Wyoming ($11.7 million), Alaska ($14.8 million), and Idaho ($23.5 million) received the least amounts.

Over the past five FYs, from 2020 to 2024, the largest relative growth occurred in Delaware (+53%), followed by Arkansas (+41%) and Mississippi (+40%). Nine states had growths of at least 20%, while an additional 14 grew by at least 10%. On the other hand, 12 states decreased, five of which (Nevada, Vermont, Washington, Montana, and North Carolina) by over 10%.

Looking further back at the past 25 FYs, from FY 2000 to FY 2024, every state increased in current dollars, with the largest jump in Delaware at 474% and lowest in Vermont at 12%. All but five states (Vermont, Iowa, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alabama) more than doubled their NIH award funding over the 25-year period, while 15 jumped over 200%.

Figure 5: NIH award funding (current USD) by state, FY 2000-2024

 

Relative to prior years, FY 2024 shows a slight contraction of around one percentage point in terms of the concentration of award funding in the top states. In FY 2000, California received 15% of award funding, while the top five and 10 received 48% and 67%, respectively. Five years before FY 2024, in FY 2020, CA had still received 15% of the total, but the top five states received 46%, and 20 received 68%.

State share of national award funding for up to five states can be compared at a time using Figure 6, below, selectable through the “Enter series to show” search bar beneath the graphic’s title.

Figure 6: State share of national award funding, FY 2000-2024

 

This article was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

useful stats, nih