Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition ... - IMM@BUCT

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
GARY MEEK/GEORGIA TECH
ACADEMIC R&D
SPENDING TRENDS
Spending on chemical research and on science and
engineering as a whole ROSE A MODERATE 4.3% in 2006
SOPHIE L. ROVNER, C&EN WASHINGTON
ENTHUSIASM FOR INVESTMENT in
research and development in academe appears
to be waning. Funding continued to
expand in fiscal 2006, the most recent year
for which data are available from the National
Science Foundation, but the outlook
is troubling, particularly in light of the current
economic climate.
Overall university and college spending
on science and engineering R&D rose
just 4.3% to $47.8 billion in 2006. That year
marked the fourth in a row in which spending
rose less than the prior year. Average
annual growth from 1996 to 2006 was 7.6%,
but that strong performance owed a lot to
the 9.1 to 10.9% annual increases that occurred
in the first four years of the current
decade. Growth slipped to 7.9% in 2004
and 5.9% the following year. The 2006 expansion
was the smallest since 1996.
Removing inflation from the statistics
shows that total R&D spending by universities
and colleges edged up 1.0% in terms of
constant dollars between 2005 and 2006.
From 1996 to 2006, spending grew a total
of 67.2% in constant dollars, compared
with 107.2% in current dollars.
For many years, basic research has
soaked up three-fourths of the total outlay
on academic R&D. In 2006, $36.0 billion
was funneled into basic research, a rise of
4.9% in current dollars versus 2005. That
growth pales beside the robust 8.8% annual
average increase during the prior decade.
Applied R&D spending rose a mere 2.5%
to $11.7 billion in 2006, well off the 10-year
annual average increase of 4.5%.
Much of academe’s total R&D budget
is supplied by the federal government. In
2006, the federal sector’s $30.0 billion outlay—which
represented an increase of 2.9%
over the prior year—accounted for 62.9%
of total funding. Institutions provided just
19.0% of the total, followed by state and
local governments, with a 6.3% stake, and
industry, with a 5.1% share.
Each year, science absorbs far more academic
R&D dollars than does engineering,
and 2006 was no different, with 85.2% of
the budget directed to science. The $40.7
TUBULAR Chemical
engineers Sankar
Nair (right) and
Suchitra Konduri of
Georgia Tech—one of
the top investors in
chemical engineering
R&D—study
nanotubes made
from metal oxides.
billion investment
in science was
4.2% higher than
in 2005. The largest
sector by far
continued to be the
life sciences, accounting
for 60.4%
of the total academic
R&D budget.
Spending on the
sector rose 4.4% to $28.8 billion in 2006.
The physical sciences, among them
chemistry, physics, and astronomy, were
allotted just 8.0% of total R&D funding
in 2006. Academe invested $3.8 billion
in this category, an increase of 3.2% over
2005. Investment in chemistry rose 4.3%
to $1.4 billion in 2006. That growth maintained
chemistry’s share at 3.0% of the
total R&D budget.
On a constant-dollar basis, chemistry
spending rose a mere 1.0% between 2005
and 2006. From 1996 to 2006, chemical
R&D spending grew a total of 43.3% in
constant dollars, compared with 77.6% in
current dollars.
From 2005 to 2006, engineering spending
grew at a faster rate than science spending,
rising 5.0% in current dollars to reach
$7.1 billion. Engineering’s 14.8% portion
of the total budget was a smidgeon higher
than the prior year’s share.
Materials engineering spending, which
accounted for 1.3% of the total R&D budget
in 2006, grew 5.2% compared with the previous
year to reach $644 million. Chemical
engineering beat that growth rate, rising
a healthy 8.1% to $547 million, for a 1.1%
share of the total budget.
FEDERAL SUPPORT for chemical engineering
rose more than usual. Between
2005 and 2006, investment in the sector
expanded 6.1% to $313 million. Federally
financed materials engineering spending
grew 4.9% to $387 million. Federal investment
in engineering as a whole rose only
2.7% to $4.2 billion in 2006.
Federal support for science R&D in
academe increased just 2.9% to $25.8 billion
between 2005 and 2006. Within the
science sector, the life sciences gained 3.2%
in funding to reach $18.3 billion in 2006.
Chemistry’s pickings were slim, with federal
R&D backing edging up just 2.6% to
$974 million.
MORE ONLINE
For tables on postdocs and grad students; the source of academic funds; and spending on basic and
applied R&D, chemical engineering, and research equipment, visit www.cen-online.org.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 31 NOVEMBER 3, 2008