Analysis of Federal Funding for Research and Development in 2022: Basic Research

1Anderson G; National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2024. U.S. R&D Increased by $72 Billion in 2021 to $789 Billion; Estimate for 2022 Indicates Further Increase to $886 Billion. NSF 24-317. Alexandria, VA: U.S. National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf24317/.

2National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Patterns of R&D Resources (annual series): table 6. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf24318/table/6.

3National Patterns data are presented on a calendar year approximations based on fiscal year data, and all other data in this InfoBrief show fiscal years.

4For more information on the NIH doubling, see https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43341.

5Data are adjusted to 2017 constant dollars from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Patterns of R&D Resources (annual series): table 7, U.S. basic research expenditures by source of funds and performing section: 1953-2022. Gross domestic product implicit price deflators (2017 = 1.00000) were used to adjust current dollars for inflation.

6For more information, see Circular A-11: Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget, Section 20.4; Office of Management and Budget, 2023. Available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/a11_web_toc.pdf.

7Budget function classifications are intended to provide a means of arraying budget data according to the major purposes served. These functions include all spending for a given topic, regardless of the federal agency that oversees the individual federal program. For more information, see Budget Function Classifications: Origins, Trends, and Implications for Current Uses, U.S. General Accounting Office, February 1998, GAO/AIMD-98-67.

8For details, see Budget Function: table 23 in the full set of tables at https://ncses.nsf.gov/data-collections/federal-budget-function/2022-2024#data.

9Congress took a number of legislative steps from March 2020 through March 2021 to provide added appropriations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which increased funding for related R&D. These include the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 6074, 6 March 2020); the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201, 18 March 2020); the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (H.R. 748, 27 March 2020); and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266, 24 April 2020). Additional funding for R&D related to COVID-19 was also provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (H.R. 133, 27 December 2020) and by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319, 10 March 2021).

10As part of the annual budget process, the federal government designates funds for R&D to help foster knowledge and innovation within the nation. This funding is classified into 20 functional categories. For more information on federal budget functional categories see Circular A-11: Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget, Exhibit 79A; Office of Management and Budget, 2023. Available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/a11_web_toc.pdf.

11For details, see table 1 in the full set of Federal Funds for R&D Survey tables at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/federal-funds-research-development/2022-2023#data.

12Obligations represent the amount for orders placed, contracts awarded, services received, and similar transactions during a given period, regardless of when the funds were appropriated or when future payment of money is required.

13The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was re-organized in 1979, creating the new Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.

14Effective with volume 71 (FYs 2021 and 2022), the Federal Funds for R&D Survey was redesigned and the fields of science and engineering were revised to the fields of R&D. For a crosswalk of changes from fields of science and engineering to fields of R&D, see technical table A-3, Crosswalk for the Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development: Volume 70 to Volume 71 at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/federal-funds-research-development/2022-2023#technical-tables.

15In FY 2022, HHS accounted for 81% of all basic research funding for life sciences. For details, see table 29 in the full set of Federal Funds for R&D Survey tables at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/federal-funds-research-development/2022-2023#data.

16For details, see table 29 in the full set of Federal Funds for R&D Survey tables at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/federal-funds-research-development/2022-2023#data.

17In addition to obligations for the conduct of R&D at an agency's own facilities and laboratories, the federal agency performer category also includes agencies' administrative costs to manage extramural R&D programs and transfers to other federal agencies for the conduct of R&D. The final disposition of these transferred funds may be intramural by the receiving agency or may be issued as grants or contracts by the receiving agency as extramural R&D. However, federal reporting guidelines instruct the originating agency to report these funds.

18For further details on the correspondence between sectors used to measure R&D and those used in the System of National Accounts, see the Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Developmenthttps://doi.org/10.1787/9789264239012-en.

19Estimates from the NCSES business and nonprofit organization R&D surveys mentioned are all derived from sample data and thereby contain sampling error. Consequently, estimates of total U.S. R&D also contain sampling error. For more information on this topic and other surveys used in the National Patterns tabulations, see the Technical Notes at https://ncses.nsf.gov/data-collections/national-patterns/2021-2022#technical-notes.

20See chapter 18, Research and Development, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2024. Available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ap_6_research_fy2024.pdf.

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