Innovation
University Research and Development, Federally Funded
Description: This indicator measures the ability of the state’s public universities to attract federal funds for science and engineering research and development (R&D). Federal obligations for science and engineering support to universities, colleges, and nonprofit organizations are reported to the National Science Foundation by 19 federal agencies.
The data are expressed as obligations made during the designated fiscal year regardless of when funds were authorized for, received by, or spent by a recipient. Excluded are loans, agency support of federal employee training and development, and indirect support of funds allocated to state agencies even though such funds are destined for use by an academic institution. This series measures the obligations that are targeted exclusively for science and engineering.
Federal obligations for science and engineering research and development for fiscal years since 1995 for each of the three state universities are presented on the dashboard. The Arizona figure is the sum of the three state universities; it does not include the small amount of obligations at community colleges that have occurred in some years. The data are inflation adjusted using the gross domestic product (GDP) implicit price deflator. The inflation-adjusted dollars are expressed in terms of the latest year of data available.
Rationale: A central theme of the economic literature on economic growth is the importance of R&D investments. Economic analysis suggests that R&D investment is crucial for attaining increases in labor productivity that ultimately translate into improvements in prosperity. R&D investment is at the center of an innovation strategy and this indicator measures the extent to which state universities have attracted federal funds for R&D.
Data Sources: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Federal S&E (Science and Engineering) Support to Universities, Colleges, and NPOs (Nonprofit Organizations) Series http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/showpub.cfm?TopID=8&SubID=1 or http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/fedsupport. The data are in Table 14. The GDP implicit price deflator is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis http://www.bea.gov/national/nipaweb/SelectTable.asp?Selected=Y (Table 1.1.9).
Comments on the Quality of the Data: None.
