Are the Feds Truly Focusing on STEM? Eh…

The National Science Foundation’s report on Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey has released its report on the government’s lack luster investments into STEM research projects.

When corrected for inflation, federal funding for STEM R&D at the university level has dropped by 5.1 percent between 2013 and 2014. This equals a massive 11 percent drop since its peak in 2011.

In 2014, the funding is expected to drop another 3.9 percent to $37.9 billion.

This funding plummet is shocking given the Obama Administration’s stated focus on STEM and STEM education in an effort to boost the American economy. If filling in the STEM gap really will help to fuel our future economy, why is the government reducing that investment?

University federal vs non-federal funding into R&D. Only universities with over $150,000 of funding reporting and numbers before 2003 didn’t include funding in non-science and engineering fields. (Image courtesy of NSF, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics [NCSES] and HERD.)

Despite the drop in federal funding, the numbers show that the 895 universities listed in the report didn’t stop spending on research.

In 2014, the same schools saw a small increase in spending of 0.2 percent from 2013 to 2014, a value of $67.1 billion to $67.3 billion respectively. The report also notes that of the schools surveyed, 634 spent over $1 million dollars in 2014.

How is Federal Funding Affecting Engineering?

Much of this money is going into three fields: engineering ($11.0 billion), biological sciences ($11.7 billion) and medical sciences ($20.7 billion). In fact, the three categories amount to 64.5 percent of the government’s funding into universities.

Though these fields have seen significant increases in federal funding in the past 20 years, the pace has significantly slowed under the Obama administration. Since 2011, funding in engineering has plateaued while the other two fields have actually decreased.

Given the political voting climate it isn’t surprising to see such a large disparity between the funding towards medical research and engineering. As the population ages, the baby boom generation will want to see research flowing into their health.

However, engineering solutions to grand challenges that influence the future of our species, such as global warming and renewable energies, will have to take a back seat.

Federal funding into engineering, biological sciences and medical science. (Image courtesy of NSF, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics [NCSES] and HERD.)

Who is Paying for the STEM R&D Funding Gap?

As a result of the investment gap created by the federal government, universities have been making up the funds by non-federal sources.

University R&D expenditures by funding source for 2014. (Image courtesy of NSF, NCSES and HERD.)

Some may fear that these sources will mostly be made up of corporate funding that might lead to the muzzling of American research. This stems from the idea that corporate groups like Big Oil won’t want to fund a report with negative findings to Big Oil.

Though corporate funding increased by 6.2 percent in 2014 to $3.7 billion, it really amounts to a small source of funding overall.

In contrast, the fastest growing source of funding for universities over the last five years were internal institutional funding. This $15.8 billion source is made up of direct funding, cost sharing of projects and external project sources. The majority of the influx is from direct funding, increasing by 54.8 percent or $3.4 billion.

Internal institutional funding sources. (Image courtesy of NSF, NCSES and HERD.)

So what is the government doing? Well the fiscal year of 2014 marked the final period that American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding could be used by universities. Excluding this act sees funding continue to drop by 1.6 percent.

These numbers get worse looking at the percentage of the government’s total funding expenditures which dropped from 62.5 to 56.5 percent. The NSF reports this is a record low since the data has been collected.

University R&D expenditures by source of funding comparison 2010 to 2014. (Image courtesy of NSF, NCSES and HERD.)

What Schools are Spending the Federal Funding?

Between 2013 and 2014 a shocking 40 percent of the top 30 schools spending money on STEM R&D reported declines in R&D spending. However, the top 30 schools ranked by R&D spending, listed below, didn’t see much change in their rankings between 2014 and 2013.

Masters Discovery
Tool

For a full list of the top 30 schools spending on R&D see the list below. It might be a good list to help you decide on that Master’s you were looking to complete.

Top 30 schools spending on STEM R&D. (Image courtesy of NSF, NCSES and HERD.)

With notes from Ronda Britt Research and Development Statistics Program, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230.