R&D Performance within Federal Facilities Totaled $49.1 Billion in FY 2024

Types of Costs

In addition to the $49.1 billion total reported in R&D expenditures performed by federal facilities in FY 2024, another $38.4 billion was spent on work performed by nonfederal entities working outside the facilities (table 1).^{​This number includes federal facilities’ funding for R&D performed by others outside the facilities, but it should be noted this total does not represent the total R&D funding to others for each agency. For data on all federal funding for R&D to all performers, see the Survey of Federal Funds for R&D: FYs 2023–24.} The remainder of this InfoBrief will focus on the $49.1 billion for R&D performed within federal facilities.

Of the total R&D performed within federal facilities, 71% ($34.8 billion) was performed within Department of Defense (DOD) facilities and 29% ($14.3 billion) was performed within non-DOD facilities. Across all federal facilities, 31% of the expenditures for work done at the facilities ($15.0 billion) went toward the payment of onsite contractors. This percentage was significantly higher for DOD facilities than for non-DOD facilities (39% versus 11%). The remaining 69% ($34.1 billion) was for all other costs, such as the labor costs for federal employees, military personnel, trainees, or fellows working on R&D; purchases of material, supplies, equipment, and services; and general administration costs in support of R&D activities.

Type of R&D

Across all federal facilities, the majority of the expenditures for R&D performed within the facilities was categorized as experimental development (69%, or $33.9 billion) (figure 1 and FFRD Survey data tables: table 4).^{​See the Technical Notes to the FY 2024 data tables for the definitions of basic research, applied research, and experimental development that were provided to survey respondents.} Another 19% ($9.1 billion) was categorized as applied research, and 12% ($6.0 billion) was categorized as basic research.

This distribution significantly varied by agency. In fact, the vast majority of all experimental development conducted within federal facilities in FY 2024 was within DOD facilities (91%, or $30.9 billion of $33.9 billion). The majority of the remaining non-DOD agencies reported most of their expenditures were in applied research. Only two agencies reported basic research as their largest category: the Department of Health and Human Services (48%, or $2.3 billion of their $4.8 billion total) and the Department of Homeland Security (90%, or $19.7 million of their $21.9 million total).

Field Distribution

The R&D performed within federal facilities spans all of the major disciplines, with work in engineering^{​Engineering encompasses a wide array of work in subfields such as aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, electrical, computer, industrial, systems, mechanical, materials, and geological engineering.} and biological, biomedical, and health sciences comprising over half (57%) of the reported expenditures (table 2). For DOD facilities, most of the R&D was within engineering (51%, or $17.6 billion) or in the other fields category, meaning not classified in one of the listed fields (40%, or $14.0 billion). For the non-DOD facilities, most of the R&D was within biological, biomedical, and health sciences (49%, or $7.1 billion).

R&D Personnel

A total of 183,523 personnel were reported as working on R&D within federal facilities in FY 2024.^{​These numbers represent the headcount of personnel; for full-time equivalent information for federal employees and military personnel, see the FY 2024 data tables: table 9.} Of this total, 72%, or 132,374, were federal employees or military personnel (figure 2). The second-largest amount of personnel were contractors working within the federal facilities (23%, or 42,271). The remaining 5%, or 8,878, were other R&D personnel, such as trainees, volunteers, or fellows who were not designated as federal employees or contractors.

Data Sources, Limitations, and Availability

Detailed tables showing these data by reporting facility are available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/federal-facilities-research-development/2024. 

The survey was conducted from January 2025 through May 2025 as a census of the population of federally owned and operated facilities in the United States that performed R&D in FY 2024.^{​See the Technical Notes to the FY 2024 data tables for details on the survey frame and exclusions.} The overall response rate was 95.7%. Imputation was performed to account for nonresponding facilities. The survey collected information on R&D expenditures by type of cost, type of R&D, source of funding, and field, as well as information on counts of R&D personnel.

A facility is defined as a unit within the agency that is responsible for performing R&D, generally with its own distinct budget and leadership. Because each agency has a different organizational structure, this unit of measurement may be a division, branch, center, laboratory, or other entity and may span multiple locations. Because of this, the total number of reporting units for the FY 2024 FFRD Survey is 322, which represents the 454 research-performing federal facilities.

The fiscal year referred to throughout this report is the federal fiscal year (1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024).

Data tables and detailed technical information are available at the FY 2024 FFRD Survey page. For more information, please contact NCSES.

NCSES has reviewed this product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved its release (NCSES-DRN25-004).

Suggested Citation

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2025. R&D Performance within Federal Facilities Totaled $49.1 Billion in FY 2024. NSF 26-300. Alexandria, VA: U.S. National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf26300.

Contact Us