GOVERNMENT & POLICY
2013 ACADEMIC SPENDING TRENDS
2012 to 2013. Overall, academic spending in 2013 was $63.4 billion, up 58% from $40.1 billion a decade earlier. That increase is smaller when adjusted for inflation—the 2013 figures amount to $51.5 billion in 2003 dollars, up just 28% in the past decade— but it still represents an upward trend. (The accompanying tables and graphs show spending in current dollars, except where noted.) The life sciences remained the prevailing force in academic science and technology spending. That discipline consumed 59% of the overall R&D budget in both 2003 and 2013, the NSF data show. Engineering overall had the biggest increase as a share of spending, up 79% over the past decade. Chemistry saw a small de-
National Science Foundation data show flat SPENDING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH institutions in recent years ANDREA WIDENER, C&EN WASHINGTON
WORRIES ABOUT academic research funding fuel angst in university scientists all over the U.S. Data released annually by the National Science Foundation on academic spending trends give researchers a chance to explore how their departments
U.S. academic science and engineering R&D spending:
$63.4
Chemistry R&D spending:
$1.7
billion
Math & computer sciences 4% Social sciencesc 6% Geosciences 6%
compare with the larger R&D community. In addition, these numbers can influence recruitment of faculty and graduate students. According to NSF’s most recent report, academic spending was fairly stable from
INTERACTIVE ONLINE Compare the top chemistry departments head-to-head in our interactive graphic of the top 100 chemistry spenders, and view a table of the top 25 chemical engineering spenders at http://cenm.ag/13rd.
billion
Math & computer sciences 4% Social sciencesc 5% Geosciences 5%
SPENDING BY FIELD
Other sciences 2% Life sciencesa 59%
Other physical sciencesb 5% Chemistry 3% Other engineering 13%
The share of total funding for various disciplines remained relatively stable over the past decade.
Materials engineering 1% Chemical engineering 1%
Other sciences 2% Life sciencesa 59%
Other physical sciencesb 5% Chemistry 3% Other engineering 15% Materials engineering 1% Chemical engineering 1%
Academic R&D spending, FY 2003 = $40.1 billion
Academic R&D spending, FY 2013 = $63.4 billion
NOTE: Institutional fiscal years. Spending figures do not account for inflation. a Includes agricultural, biological, medical, and other life sciences. b Includes astronomy, physics, and other physical sciences. c Includes psychology. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, WebCASPAR database, 2013 data
FUNDING SOURCES Federal funding has declined, and institutions have contributed more to academic R&D.
$ Billions
BIG MOVERS
70 60 50
◼ All other sources ◼ Industry ◼ State & local government ◼ Institutional funds ◼ Federal government
Emory University moved up
24 43
40 30 NOTE: Institutional fiscal years beginning with 1972, the first year for which data are available. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, WebCASPAR database, 2013 data
places in chemistry spending rankings
20 10 0 1972
77
82
87
CEN.ACS.ORG
U at Buffalo, SUNY, moved up
92
97
24
02
JUNE 1, 2015
07
12
places in chemical engineering spending rankings
SCHOOL SPENDING ON CHEMICAL R&D This table ranks top chemistry spenders and breaks down funding sources RANK
SHARE OF TOTAL EXPENDITURES IN 2013, %a
SPENDING, $ THOUSANDS
2013 2012 INSTITUTION
2003
2012
2013
FEDERAL GOVT.
STATE/ LOCAL GOVT.
87.4%
0.1%
4.3%
INDUSTRY
ANNUAL CHANGE
INSTITUTION
2012–13 2003–13 2007A
$18,099
$56,563
$46,430
Georgia Tech Harvard U Northwestern U U of California, San Diego U of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign U of California, Berkeley Rutgers U Johns Hopkins U b U of Texas, Austin
9,652 19,456 16,108 17,530 20,949
34,971 28,990 33,822 27,399 28,730
37,960 35,641 35,547 31,353 29,131
69.7 66.8 66.4 85.2 73.3
0.5 0.0 0.0 1.5 0.0
6.9 2.4 0.0 1.5 3.5
21.6 21.9 21.3 2.2 17.5
8.5 22.9 5.1 14.4 1.4
293.3 83.2 120.7 78.9 39.1
24,907 15,552 11,330 23,382
22,243 36,452 19,393 27,629
25,954 25,758 24,947 24,649
69.1 85.3 96.1 52.3
0.5 0.9 0.0 5.8
9.5 4.0 0.1 3.5
7.3 7.7 3.3 24.6
16.7 -29.3 28.6 -10.8
4.2 65.6 120.2 5.4
19
U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
16,045
20,378
23,595
79.2
0.0
1.8
15.5
15.8
47.1
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
11 27 26 12 14 31 20 18 16 15 9
15,191 15,546 10,856 19,703 10,657 14,701 20,804 15,164 18,097 11,260 20,184
23,076 18,944 19,216 22,588 22,056 17,327 20,328 20,523 21,045 21,380 24,698
23,168 22,968 22,450 22,378 21,896 21,762 20,950 20,668 20,633 20,276 19,297
67.0 51.5 69.7 37.1 64.2 49.6 70.5 72.2 80.7 15.0 70.0
0.0 5.7 0.0 0.5 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.1
2.3 7.6 3.0 2.0 1.7 9.1 0.9 1.6 7.4 8.1 14.9
27.7 29.1 22.3 30.4 28.2 36.0 22.3 13.3 9.8 45.2 10.8
0.4 21.2 16.8 -0.9 -0.7 25.6 3.1 0.7 -2.0 -5.2 -21.9
52.5 47.7 106.8 13.6 105.5 48.0 0.7 36.3 14.0 80.1 -4.4
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
23 48 25 17 10 38 22 37 21 29 35 30 42 32 47 39 45 33 49 61 43 34 52 40 44 51 55 28
U of Michigan U of Wisconsin, Madison U of California, Irvine Texas A&M U U of Notre Dame Indiana U Cornell U U of Colorado Stanford U U of Akron Massachusetts Inst. of Technology U of Massachusetts, Amherst Emory U U of California, Los Angeles Pennsylvania State U U of Washington, Seattle U of Minnesota Purdue U Stony Brook U, SUNY U of Arizona U of Chicago U of Pittsburgh Princeton U Rice U Arizona State U, Tempe Yale U U of California, Davis Florida State U U of Southern California U of Kansas Michigan State U Ohio State U Vanderbilt U U of Florida U of California, San Francisco U of Pennsylvania Columbia U Boston U U of Utah Total, listed institutions TOTAL, ALL INSTITUTIONS
15,688 10,667 19,607 18,214 16,947 9,569 13,268 9,007 10,874 8,802 9,630 11,278 9,294 10,162 8,062 7,526 13,321 8,890 3,856 13,230 15,512 4,546 11,594 28,798 11,165 7,746 3,827 12,247 $688,500 $1,225,546
19,993 12,850 19,286 21,032 23,412 14,315 20,059 14,892 20,321 18,310 15,929 17,811 13,824 16,316 12,973 14,220 13,248 16,012 12,013 9,763 13,739 15,959 11,966 14,192 13,615 11,970 10,599 18,863 $1,005,233 $1,750,134
19,234 18,685 18,486 18,290 17,404 17,378 17,286 17,273 17,255 17,180 17,116 16,829 16,661 16,048 16,020 13,923 13,871 13,707 13,444 13,213 12,816 12,308 11,987 11,858 11,780 11,681 11,600 11,570 $1,002,314 $1,706,470
7.6 1.2 13.5 5.0 0.4 10.2 10.3 3.4 1.0 2.8 0.8 7.8 9.0 1.4 1.9 3.0 0.8 14.6 3.6 3.4 0.4 1.0 3.0 3.2 0.9 1.1 0.7 0.1 4.2% 4.0%
20.8 45.2 8.7 31.7 4.6 15.8 18.2 44.9 23.4 10.7 42.6 36.4 15.9 26.8 26.3 17.8 28.1 19.6 11.7 24.3 21.5 11.4 32.0 12.9 4.5 9.3 22.8 14.5 19.8% 21.6%
-3.8 45.4 -4.1 -13.0 -25.7 21.4 -13.8 16.0 -15.1 -6.2 7.5 -5.5 20.5 -1.6 23.5 -2.1 4.7 -14.4 11.9 35.3 -6.7 -22.9 0.2 -16.4 -13.5 -2.4 9.4 -38.7 -0.3% -2.5%
22.6 75.2 -5.7 0.4 2.7 81.6 30.3 91.8 58.7 95.2 77.7 49.2 79.3 57.9 98.7 85.0 4.1 54.2 248.7 -0.1 -17.4 170.7 3.4 -58.8 5.5 50.8 203.1 -5.5 45.6% 39.2%
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 3 5 4 8 6
7 8 9 10
13 2 24 7
11
California Inst. of Technology
70.9 53.4 66.7 57.6 89.9 72.8 66.3 48.4 66.7 78.8 55.3 52.2 54.5 64.0 63.4 65.8 70.3 50.4 79.2 71.0 73.7 86.4 58.6 75.0 92.2 76.8 68.9 83.8 68.2% 66.6%
0.0 0.0 0.5 0.0 1.7 0.2 0.2 1.2 2.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 10.3 3.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.8% 2.0%
1.2%
-17.9% 156.5%
NOTE: Institutional fiscal years. a Figures might not sum to 100% because other funding sources, such as nonprofit organizations, are not listed. b Includes funding for the Applied Physics Laboratory. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, WebCASPAR database
CEN.ACS.ORG
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GOVERNMENT & POLICY
TOP 25 UNIVERSITIES IN 2013 R&D SPENDING Many top-spending universities don’t pour a lot of money into chemistry RANK
SPENDING, $ MILLIONS
OVERALL CHEMISTRY
1 2
9 12
3
27
4
5
5
46
6
13
7
75
8
11
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
25 3 20 28 33 48 18
16
22
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
26 15 47 37 19 43 2
24
6
25
470
INSTITUTION
PHYSICAL SCIENCESb CHEMISTRY LIFE SCIENCESa ENGINEERING (INCL. CHEM.) GEOSCIENCES
Johns Hopkins U c U of Michigan U of Washington, Seattle U of California, San Diego
OVERALL
$25 23
$871 788
$879 250
$180 50
$39 18
$149 22
$33 183
$2,150 1,310
17
785
122
45
114
22
23
1,112
31
610
126
67
165
43
56
1,067
12
1031
0
12
0
0
0
1,043
23
641
139
81
49
29
58
998
7
811
72
20
20
17
46
987
24
701
4
34
35
29
140
942
18 36 21 17 17 12 21
668 538 570 587 730 590 536
76 58 131 102 37 63 105
66 77 101 47 30 42 105
22 32 29 31 10 115 22
29 12 35 29 11 21 27
73 194 33 59 29 14 46
934 911 901 855 847 846 841
19
119
420
107
51
77
59
834
18 22 12 16 21 13 38
273 299 647 670 426 455 21
321 279 48 33 101 156 503
57 46 28 41 93 32 57
53 128 4 6 95 11 16
69 22 22 17 15 39 107
58 22 42 21 44 52 22
830 796 790 788 774 743 726
29
217
165
60
8
229
41
722
0
659
0
15
0
16
28
718
$493
$14,240
$4,191
$1,493
$1,074
$1,090
$1,377
$23,465
$1,706
$37,585
$10,729
$4,646
$3,199
$2,739
$4,496
$67,891
U of California, San Francisco U of Wisconsin, Madison Duke U U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill U of California, Los Angeles Harvard U Stanford U U of Minnesota U of Pittsburgh Columbia U Cornell U Massachusetts Inst. of Technology Pennsylvania State U Texas A&M U U of Pennsylvania Yale U U of Colorado Ohio State U Georgia Tech U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign U of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Total, listed institutions TOTAL, ALL INSTITUTIONS
MATH & COMPUTER OTHER SCIENCES SCIENCES
NOTE: Institutional fiscal years. Total may not sum because of rounding. a Includes agricultural, biological, medical, and other life sciences. b Includes astronomy, chemistry, physics, and other physical sciences. c Includes funding for the Applied Physics Laboratory. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, WebCASPAR database, 2013 data
cline as a share of the overall budget, from 3.1% to 2.7%. For universities, the federal government remained by far the dominant player in research support. But the amount of federal spending peaked at $39.7 billion in 2011 and then began a slow decline. Industry support has risen slowly, but institutions themselves also picked up some of the slack. Their spending on research climbed to $13.3 billion in 2013, almost double the amount they provided a decade earlier. The trends in chemistry department spending were also generally upward
from 2012 to 2013. California Institute of Technology, the top-funded chemistry department, spent $46.4 million in 2013, with 87% of those funds from the federal government. That was down from Caltech’s 2012 spending numbers, but it received more than double the overall money it spent in 2003. The top-spending chemical engineering department, the University of Texas, Austin, shelled out almost the same as Caltech’s largest-spending chemistry department, $46.2 million in 2013. However, only 33% of that chemical engineering program’s spending was supported by federal CEN.ACS.ORG
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dollars. An almost equal amount—37%— came from industry. Only a handful of the highest-spending chemistry departments were in the country’s top-spending research institutions for science and technology overall. The top research spender in 2013, Johns Hopkins University, had the ninth-ranked chemistry department in terms of spending. Other top 10 highest-spending chemistry departments in the top 25 for overall spending were the University of California, San Diego; Harvard University; Georgia Institute of Technology; and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. ◾
