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In FY11, the top 30 U.S. research universities accounted for over 40 percent (approximately $26.1 billion) of total academic R&D spending in 2011, according to survey data collected by the National Science Foundation. The other 882 universities surveyed accounted for approximately $39 billion of the total academic R&D spending for the 2011 fiscal year (approximately $65.1B billion). The Higher Education Research and Development Survey population also increased from 742 universities in 2010 to 912 in 2011.

As the rate of foreign students earning doctorates from American universities increases — from 17 percent of the total science, engineering, and health doctoral degrees in the 1960s to nearly 40 percent in 2010 — the question is where do these foreign nationals seek work? Do they remain in the United States post-graduation or do they return to their country of origin or do they go elsewhere?

Between FY2007-12, research and development (R&D) spending at U.S. universities grew 27.5 percent, from about $51.6 billion to $65.8 billion, according to the latest edition of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey. The survey provides a look at R&D spending at U.S. universities, with data broken down by state, institution, research area and funding sources.

The president’s FY15 budget proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) would provide $7.3 billion (1.2 percent increase). Of that amount, $5.8 billion (no change) would be designated for research and related activities, $200.8 million (0.4 percent increase) for R&D facilities and equipment, and $889.8 million (5.2 percent increase) for education and training. Nearly 90 percent of NSF funding is awarded through a merit review process that includes distribution of grants and cooperative agreements.

U.S. spending on higher education research and development (R&D) declined in FY12 (after adjustments for inflation) for the first time in almost 40 years, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The decrease marks the end of a period of modest growth since 2009 in which R&D expenditures increased at an average of five percent each year. While data on higher education R&D spending by state is not yet available for FY12, NSF has released state data through FY11, including expenditures by funding source

State government agencies spent $1.4 billion on research in FY11, an 11.3 percent increase over the previous year, according to a release from the National Science Foundation. Much of the increase was concentrated in the top five states, New York, Ohio, Florida, California and Pennsylvania, which together represent about 51 percent of total U.S. state R&D spending.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that it will award $74 million total for the creation of four interdisciplinary research and education centers as part of the third generation of NSF Engineering Research Centers. In addition to their primary focus on commercialization and education, these centers will emphasize innovation, entrepreneurship, small business collaboration, and international partnerships. For the first time, two of the ERCs will be co-funded by the Department of Energy.

According to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey the percentage of university R&D funded by private sector investment has remained mostly stable since the late 1970s, hovering between 5 percent and 7 percent of total R&D expenditures. In FY 2011 the private sector invested $3.2 billion, or 4.9 percent of the total $65 billion university R&D expenditures.

A new report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) portrays science and engineering employment in the United States as highly concentrated in a small number of states and metro areas. Most states reflected a lower S&E employment intensity than the United States as a whole. As noted in the report, the availability of a skilled workforce is an important predictor of a region’s population, productivity, and technological growth.

The Manufacturing Institute, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, has released an inaugural roster for the “M-List,” which includes academic institutions training workers up to industry standards in advanced manufacturing. M-List schools have designed their curriculums to compliment industry standards and provide their students with credentials through the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System.

On January 14, 2013, the National Science Foundation (NSF) instituted several key changes in the NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide. The new rule changes will affect several areas of the proposal process, especially for those applying online via FastLane, including a revised project summary process and review criteria.

The Congressional Research Service recently published findings on the current conditions of federal support of academic research, highlighting the threat that constrained university, state and federal budgets places on critical basic research. Although there is growing recognition that R&D is crucial to the long term health of the nation's science and technology sectors, data from the report shows U.S. colleges and universities have seen a decline in financial support at the federal, state and private levels.

Several federal agencies have joined forces to launch a new beta website that allows individuals to look at U.S. federal investments in science and engineering from two agencies — the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The R&D dashboard gives users the ability to search and download data on grants issued by the federal government to research institutions (investments) and on output activities (e.g., patents and publications) from federally funded research by state, congressional district and research institution.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded nearly $50 million to grantees for the development and use of robots that cooperatively work with people to enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it is accepting applications for the establishment of Innovation Corps (I-Corps) teams and sites. These programs are intended to provide additional funding and other services to help researchers commercialize NSF-funded scientific discoveries at institutions of higher education.

Research collaborations between institutions of higher education are becoming an increasingly important facet of U.S. R&D, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF). A new NSF InfoBrief reveals that pass-through funds, R&D expenditures transferred from one institution to another, represented seven percent of total expenditures in 2009. In 2000, they represented only five percent of expenditures.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a breakdown of federal research and development (R&D) funding by research area. The report includes FY10 spending, FY11 preliminary spending levels and proposed FY12 levels. In 2010, national defense led the list of research priorities, receiving 59 percent of all U.S. R&D spending. Health research captured another 21.5 percent of spending. NSF provides tables for each research area that separate spending by federal agency and program.