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Some Facts on R&D Budgets

Recent concerns among some in the scientific community of a crisis in R&D funding don’t square well with actual trends in R&D budgets. Here are some facts:

Here is a National Science Foundation perspective on funding for science and technology from the fall of 2000, for FY 2001:

“Since 1994, R&D in the United States has risen sharply, from $169.2 billion to a projected $264.2 billion in 2000…That increase of $73.2 billion 1996 dollars between 1994 and 2000 is the greatest single real increase for any six-year period in the history of the R&D data series, which begins in 1953.”

There are of course different trends at the level of individual disciplines, with most receiving substantial increases in funding in the public and private sectors.

One year later, here (in PDF) is how AAAS characterized federal funding for science and technology for FY 2002:

“The federal investment in research and development (R&D) exceeds $100 billion for the first time. Federal R&D in FY 2002 totals $103.7 billion, a $12.3 billion or 13.5 percent increase over FY 2001 that is the largest dollar increase in history and the largest percentage increase in nearly 20 years … There are substantial increases for all the major federal R&D agencies … There are large increases for basic and applied research in FY 2002 …all federal agencies receive increases for their research portfolios.”

In FY 2002, NIH, defense, and homeland security fared better in the budget process than other areas, but all R&D increased to record levels.

Here is the headline from the AAAS analysis for FY 2003 from March, 2003, about one year ago:

“FY 2003 Federal R&D Climbs to Record High of $117 Billion; DOD, NIH, NSF and Homeland Security R&D Make Big Gains”

Here is the headline from the AAAS analysis for FY 2004 from January, 2004, five months ago:

“FY 2004 Federal R&D Climbs to Record High of $127 Billion; Defense and Homeland Security Up, Other Programs Share in Modest Gains”

The most recent AAAS analysis from March, 2004 for 2005 has this headline:

“Research Holds, Development Gains in 2005 Budget”

Science and technology policy is (or at least should be) about more than just budgets. It should be as much about “Why?” as “How much?” but so long as budgets are central to ongoing discussion, it is good to have the facts straight.