by Michael T. Gibbons [1]
The nation's 42 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) spent over $20 billion on R&D in FY 2017, an annual increase of more than 4% in current dollars (table 1). Most support for R&D came from the federal government (98.2%), reaching nearly $19.7 billion in FY 2017. This amount represented a 4.3% increase in federal R&D support to FFRDCs—the fourth year of growth after funding declines in FYs 2010–13. In constant 2009 dollars, total FFRDC expenditures on R&D rose 2.4% from FY 2016 to FY 2017 (figure 1). Since FY 2007, total R&D spending at FFRDCs has increased at an average annual rate of 2.2% in constant dollars. These and the other statistics in this report come from the FY 2017 FFRDC Research and Development Survey, conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Fiscal year | All R&D expenditures |
Federal government |
State and local government |
Business | Nonprofit organizations |
All other sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, FFRDC Research and Development Survey. |
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2010 | 18,880,609 | 18,453,552 | 52,871 | 168,561 | 23,665 | 181,960 |
2011 | 18,671,245 | 18,276,088 | 26,744 | 190,111 | 38,878 | 139,424 |
2012 | 18,280,943 | 17,875,012 | 39,428 | 184,434 | 45,926 | 136,143 |
2013 | 17,667,184 | 17,284,513 | 50,449 | 186,911 | 39,390 | 105,921 |
2014 | 17,718,556 | 17,331,396 | 28,337 | 220,735 | 37,182 | 100,906 |
2015 | 18,458,257 | 18,097,189 | 18,427 | 208,780 | 27,984 | 105,877 |
2016 | 19,219,702 | 18,855,593 | 21,556 | 192,239 | 40,195 | 110,119 |
2017 | 20,038,307 | 19,667,804 | 29,029 | 192,107 | 46,526 | 102,841 |
FFRDCs are privately operated R&D organizations that are exclusively or substantially financed by the federal government. In FY 2017, basic research activities accounted for 20.5% of total FFRDC R&D expenditures, 3.2 percentage points lower than in FYs 2013 and 2014 (table 2). The remaining R&D expenditures were divided evenly between applied research (39.6%) and experimental development (39.9%). Overall, total basic research expenditures at FFRDCs declined by $75 million in current dollars from FY 2013 to FY 2017. Applied research expenditures increased by $1.1 billion and experimental development increased by $1.3 billion during the same period.
Fiscal year | All R&D expenditures |
Basic research | Applied research | Experimental development |
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---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amount | Percent | Amount | Percent | Amount | Percent | ||||
NOTE: Because of rounding, detail may not add to total. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, FFRDC Research and Development Survey. |
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2013 | 17,667 | 4,186 | 23.7 | 6,818 | 38.6 | 6,663 | 37.7 | ||
2014 | 17,719 | 4,195 | 23.7 | 6,839 | 38.6 | 6,684 | 37.7 | ||
2015 | 18,458 | 4,094 | 22.2 | 7,292 | 39.5 | 7,072 | 38.3 | ||
2016 | 19,220 | 4,224 | 22.0 | 7,527 | 39.2 | 7,468 | 38.9 | ||
2017 | 20,038 | 4,111 | 20.5 | 7,931 | 39.6 | 7,996 | 39.9 |
The majority of FFRDCs (24 centers) increased R&D spending in FY 2017, with 16 reporting an increase greater than 4%. Six FFRDCs reported more than $1 billion each (and a combined $10.9 billion) in R&D expenditures for FY 2017—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration–sponsored Jet Propulsion Laboratory, four Department of Energy–sponsored National Laboratories specializing in energy and the environment, national security, and nuclear science: Sandia, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore, and the Department of Defense–sponsored National Security Engineering Center (table 3). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported the largest dollar and percentage increase in R&D of any center, increasing by over $472 million, or 25.5%, from FY 2016. Seventeen FFRDCs reported lower expenditures in FY 2017, though six of those declined by less than 1.5%. Of the 40 FFRDCs listed continuously since 2014, 32 reported greater expenditures in FY 2017 compared to FY 2014.
FFRDC | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | % change 2016–17 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
na = not applicable. FFRDC = federally funded research and development center. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, FFRDC Research and Development Survey. |
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All FFRDCs | 17,718,556 | 18,458,257 | 19,219,702 | 20,038,307 | 4.3 |
University-administered FFRDCs | 5,279,306 | 5,483,466 | 5,669,908 | 6,155,252 | 8.6 |
Ames Laboratory | 41,824 | 45,845 | 46,886 | 53,527 | 14.2 |
Argonne National Laboratory | 719,459 | 719,521 | 733,377 | 723,824 | -1.3 |
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | 334,522 | 319,700 | 323,507 | 320,516 | -0.9 |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory | 1,664,539 | 1,749,689 | 1,852,369 | 2,324,826 | 25.5 |
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | 762,601 | 792,457 | 797,831 | 813,267 | 1.9 |
Lincoln Laboratory | 830,076 | 914,071 | 949,138 | 969,090 | 2.1 |
National Center for Atmospheric Research | 162,259 | 166,385 | 177,422 | 171,551 | -3.3 |
National Optical Astronomy Observatory | 25,161 | 23,660 | 24,917 | 25,906 | 4.0 |
National Radio Astronomy Observatory | 85,327 | 89,689 | 90,411 | 91,720 | 1.4 |
National Solar Observatory | 10,039 | 11,752 | 12,783 | 11,841 | -7.4 |
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory | 97,768 | 81,348 | 82,246 | 81,444 | -1.0 |
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory | 316,646 | 310,167 | 313,031 | 327,453 | 4.6 |
Software Engineering Institute | 123,217 | 131,146 | 145,981 | 132,967 | -8.9 |
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility | 105,868 | 128,036 | 120,009 | 107,320 | -10.6 |
Nonprofit-administered FFRDCs | 5,945,266 | 6,121,483 | 6,128,058 | 6,413,612 | 4.7 |
Aerospace Federally Funded Research and Development Center | 838,708 | 888,119 | 909,868 | 942,704 | 3.6 |
Arroyo Center | 33,391 | 40,594 | 44,616 | 42,723 | -4.2 |
Brookhaven National Laboratory | 573,364 | 587,194 | 579,087 | 556,875 | -3.8 |
Center for Advanced Aviation System Development | 149,054 | 155,696 | 156,644 | 168,169 | 7.4 |
Center for Communications and Computing | 63,199 | 56,478 | 61,625 | 66,692 | 8.2 |
Center for Enterprise Modernization | 158,069 | 145,442 | 146,436 | 154,933 | 5.8 |
Center for Naval Analyses | 80,283 | 80,358 | 84,232 | 90,401 | 7.3 |
Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses | 12,314 | 12,636 | 8,600 | 6,312 | -26.6 |
CMS Alliance to Modernize Healthcare | 70,458 | 168,142 | 141,860 | 169,013 | 19.1 |
Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center | na | na | na | 8,622 | na |
Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute | 20,866 | 16,965 | 22,038 | na | na |
Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute | 94,353 | 77,176 | 101,628 | 104,414 | 2.7 |
Judiciary Engineering and Modernization Center | 2,299 | 4,318 | 9,289 | 8,030 | -13.6 |
National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center | 30,310 | 30,716 | 32,902 | 34,991 | 6.3 |
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence | na | 7,843 | 13,076 | 13,436 | 2.8 |
National Defense Research Institute | 62,073 | 56,736 | 62,848 | 69,013 | 9.8 |
National Renewable Energy Laboratory | 359,998 | 378,436 | 362,087 | 357,916 | -1.2 |
National Security Engineering Center | 885,382 | 919,441 | 966,542 | 1,012,155 | 4.7 |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | 1,293,722 | 1,333,332 | 1,283,729 | 1,403,204 | 9.3 |
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | 1,021,912 | 951,099 | 914,747 | 983,962 | 7.6 |
Project Air Force | 39,351 | 44,393 | 49,165 | 48,521 | -1.3 |
Science and Technology Policy Institute | 10,949 | 8,724 | 7,459 | 8,401 | 12.6 |
Systems and Analyses Center | 145,211 | 157,645 | 169,580 | 163,125 | -3.8 |
Industry-administered FFRDCs | 6,493,984 | 6,853,308 | 7,421,736 | 7,469,443 | 0.6 |
Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research | 448,500 | 495,300 | 642,165 | 704,223 | 9.7 |
Idaho National Laboratory | 479,801 | 476,376 | 521,618 | 482,840 | -7.4 |
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | 1,170,571 | 1,273,066 | 1,363,525 | 1,290,134 | -5.4 |
Los Alamos National Laboratory | 1,767,000 | 1,865,000 | 1,987,000 | 1,972,769 | -0.7 |
Sandia National Laboratories | 2,507,099 | 2,621,891 | 2,781,547 | 2,878,000 | 3.5 |
Savannah River National Laboratory | 121,013 | 121,675 | 125,881 | 141,477 | 12.4 |
The statistics on FFRDC R&D expenditures presented in this report come from the FY 2017 FFRDC Research and Development Survey. This annual survey is completed by FFRDC administrators and collects data from FFRDCs on R&D expenditures by source of funds (federal, state and local, business, nonprofit organizations, or other), type of R&D (basic research, applied research, or experimental development), and type of cost (salaries, software, equipment, subcontracts, or indirect costs). This survey has been a census of the full population of FFRDCs since FY 2001. For a list of criteria used to define the set of FFRDCs, see the general guidelines of the Master Government List of FFRDCs at https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/#guide&gennotes. For more information on the survey methodology see the technical notes in FFRDC Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2017.
The full set of data tables from this survey are available at https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/ffrdcrd/2017/.
[1] Michael T. Gibbons, Research and Development Statistics Program, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Ave, Suite W14200, Alexandria, VA 22314 (mgibbons@nsf.gov; 703-292-4590).