Federally funded R&D at universities totaled almost $54 billion in FY 2022, which accounted for 55% of total expenditures (table 2). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes the National Institutes of Health, supported the largest federal share of R&D at $30.3 billion. This amounted to 31% of total R&D at higher education institutions in FY 2022 and 56% of total federal R&D support. The Department of Defense (DOD) ($8.0 billion) and the National Science Foundation ($6.0 billion) accounted for most of the remaining federally funded expenditures, while three other agencies supported between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion of university R&D in FY 2022: the Department of Energy (DOE) ($2.5 billion), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ($2.0 billion), and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) ($1.5 billion). All other federal agencies combined supported $3.6 billion of higher education R&D in FY 2022.

Universities’ own funding ($24.5 billion) accounted for 25% of total R&D in FY 2022, which is similar to the percentage reported since 2016 (table 1). R&D expenditures funded by nonprofit organizations ($6.0 billion) and businesses ($5.7 billion) each supported around 6% of total R&D. State and local governments funded 5% or $4.9 billion, while all other sources funded 2.7% ($2.6 billion) of higher education R&D.

Foreign sources of R&D funding are also collected in the HERD Survey. About $1.5 billion in foreign funds supported R&D at higher education institutions in FY 2022 (figure 2). ​ Almost half of the foreign-funded expenditures (48%) originated from foreign businesses, while 23% were funded by foreign nonprofits and 21% were funded by foreign governments. Foreign higher education institutions (7%) and all other sources (2%) accounted for the rest of university foreign-funded R&D in FY 2022. Virtually all of the foreign-funded R&D was performed by doctorate-awarding institutions. Private institutions ($766 million or 52% of the total) expended about $50 million more of the foreign-funded R&D dollars than public institutions ($714 million or 48% of the total).^{​For more details on R&D expenditures funded by foreign sources, see table 15 at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/higher-education-research-development/2022#data.}

R&D expenditures in all science fields combined increased by $5.9 billion (8.4%) in FY 2022, reaching $76.2 billion (table 3). Engineering R&D expenditures ($15.6 billion total) increased by 9.1% ($1.3 billion) and non-science and engineering R&D ($5.9 billion total) increased by 14.5% ($744 million). R&D expenditures in two life sciences subfields, health sciences ($31.9 billion total, $2.0 billion increase) and biological and biomedical sciences ($18.2 billion total, $1.6 billion increase), showed the largest dollar increases, accounting for 45% of the total university R&D growth in FY 2022.

When adjusted for inflation, total university R&D increased by 1.8% in FY 2022.^{​See endnote 1 for constant dollar details.} Several R&D subfields declined in inflation-adjusted dollars from FY 2021. Health sciences, which is the largest R&D field, was down 0.2%. Other fields with lower inflation-adjusted R&D expenditures in FY 2022 include materials science (down 6.5%), metallurgical and materials engineering (down 1.5%), and chemistry (down 0.4%). R&D fields “not elsewhere classified” within engineering, social sciences, and life sciences respectively declined between 1.2% and 3.8% in inflation-adjusted terms.

Of the $97.7 billion in total FY 2022 R&D expenditures, higher education institutions identified $75.4 billion in direct costs and $22.3 billion in indirect costs (table 4). Salaries, wages, and fringe benefits paid to R&D personnel ($43.1 billion) accounted for the largest portion of direct costs. Other direct costs, including (but not limited to) travel, tuition, waivers, computer usage fees, supplies, and services, such as consulting, amounted to over $20.9 billion. Institutions also passed R&D funding totaling $8.5 billion to other universities ($4.7 billion) or other organizations excluding contractors or other vendors ($3.8 billion) as part of their FY 2022 direct costs.^{​For more details on R&D expenditures passed through to subrecipients, see tables 4, 74–77, and 85 in the survey’s FY 2022 detailed data tables.} Among indirect costs, $16.1 billion of facilities and administrative costs were reimbursed from external R&D sponsors. Another $6.2 billion was identified as unrecovered indirect costs.^{​For more information on the definitions and collection of these fields, see the HERD questionnaire and technical notes at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/higher-education-research-development/2022#methodology.,​Unrecovered indirect cost means the difference between the amount charged to a federal award and the amount that could have been charged to a federal award under a nonfederal entity's approved negotiated indirect cost rate.}

The top 30 institutions in terms of R&D expenditures accounted for 42% of the total spent on R&D within the higher education sector in FY 2022, which is consistent with the preceding years (table 5). Twenty-nine institutions reported at least $1 billion in R&D expenditures in FY 2022, compared with 21 institutions in FY 2020. Sixteen of the top 30 institutions were public, accounting for $21.8 billion in total R&D expenditures; 14 were private, accounting for $19.5 billion. Institutions with medical schools were well-represented in the top 30, with 27 reporting medical school R&D expenditures.^{​For more details on R&D expenditures at institutions with medical schools, see table 72 in the survey’s FY 2022 detailed data tables.}

The same institutions were ranked in the top 30 in FY 2021 and FY 2022. Only three institutions changed more than 3 positions: New York University moved up 8 positions to number 15, Yale University moved down 6 positions to number 21, and Texas A&M University, College Station and Health Science Center moved from number 16 in FY 2021 to number 23 in FY 2022.

The higher education R&D expenditures data were collected from a census of 900 universities and colleges that grant a bachelor’s degree or higher and expended at least $150,000 in R&D in FY 2021. To reduce respondent burden, the HERD Survey requests abbreviated data (short form) from institutions reporting less than $1 million in R&D expenditures during the previous fiscal year. Except for the totals reported in table 1 and figure 1, all other totals shown in this report exclude expenditures from the 263 institutions that completed the short-form version of the survey. The institutions completing the short-form survey accounted for $162 million (0.2%) of total higher education R&D expenditures in FY 2022.

The fiscal year referred to throughout this report is the academic fiscal year. For most academic institutions, FY 2022 represents 1 July 2021 through 30 June 2022.

The amounts reported include all funds expended for activities specifically organized to produce research outcomes and either sponsored by an outside organization or separately accounted for using institution funds. R&D expenditures at university-administered federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are collected in a separate survey, the FFRDC Research and Development Survey, available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/ffrdc-research-development/.

The full set of data tables and technical information from this survey are available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/higher-education-research-development/2022#data.

Gibbons, MT; National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2023. R&D Expenditures at U.S. Universities Increased by $8 Billion in FY 2022. NSF 24-307. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf24307.

Michael T. Gibbons
Survey Manager
NCSES
Tel: (703) 292-4590
E-mail: mgibbons@nsf.gov

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
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