By Graham Andrews
The latest release of the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey by the National Science Foundation shows that colleges and universities significantly increased their own support for groundbreaking research and development (R&D) in FY24.
Universities’ own resources represented approximately a quarter of all sources of funding for university-based research conducted in FY24; funding from the federal government and other sources accounted for the remainder. In total, universities spent $117.7 billion on R&D in FY24 – an 8.1% increase from FY23. This investment in research and innovation helps to keep the United States a world leader in scientific advancements and supports American businesses.
The majority of university research (55% or $65 billion) is funded by federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and NASA. The federal government’s investments in research are essential to maintaining America’s status as a leader in science and technology and have, over the years, led to many of the technologies we rely on every day, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), GPS navigation, and even Google search.
Universities typically earn federal research funding by winning competitive awards through rigorous merit review processes. Even though more than half of university research is funded by federal agencies, universities account for only about 30% of the research and development that the federal government finances.
Universities also continue to use their own resources to support research; institutions of higher education spent $30.2 billion of their own funds (26% of the total) on R&D in FY24 – a 9.1% increase from FY23. These totals include more than $7 billion in unrecovered indirect costs, often referred to as facilities and administrative (F&A) costs. (F&A costs are typically expenses associated with the infrastructure that universities provide to support research, such as the costs of maintaining world-class research laboratories, providing high-speed data processing, complying with patient safety rules, etc.)
The HERD survey data show that AAU’s 69 U.S. member universities continue to lead the nation in conducting research: AAU member institutions accounted for 60% ($71.1 billion) of all spending on R&D by universities in the country.
It is important to note that these amounts reflect research expenditures in universities’ 2024 fiscal year (typically July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024), so they do not capture the impact of recent changes to the federal funding landscape.
America’s leading research universities use federal dollars and their own resources to conduct research in a broad array of areas. AAU members are developing cutting-edge medical diagnostic tools, boosting U.S. manufacturing, discovering cures and new drugs, advancing American agriculture, and helping to protect our warfighters on the battlefield. Learn more about how America’s leading research universities are taking on our nation’s biggest challenges and breaking through for the benefit of all Americans.
Graham Andrews is research analyst at AAU.