It's all about inflation. Federal funding of academic science and engineering research increased between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007, but only if you discount inflation, according to data from the National Science Foundation. In current dollars, federally funded expenditures to colleges and universities grew 1.1% to $30.4 billion in 2007. However, adjust for inflation and the number is instead a 1.6% decline from the previous year.
Additional survey data indicate:
62 percentage of academic R&D funding provided by the federal government in fiscal 2007
64 percentage of academic R&D funding provided by the federal government in fiscal 2005
$49.4 billion overall R&D expenditures related to science and engineering reported by universities in fiscal 2007
7.8 percentage growth in nonfederal R&D funding to universities in fiscal 2007, or 5% adjusted for inflation
11.2 percentage growth in industry funding of academic R&D in science and engineering in fiscal 2007
$2.7 billion industry funding of academic R&D in science and engineering in fiscal 2007
See Also
