Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions 2023

The terms used throughout the survey have remained relatively unchanged from the FY 1971 survey cycle to the present; however, for the FY 2016 cycle, the definitions of basic research, applied research, development, and R&D plant were aligned more closely to the definitions used by the Office of Management and Budget in the July 2016 version of Circular A-11.

Facilities and equipment for instruction in S&E include all programs whose principal purpose is to provide support for construction, acquisition, renovation, modification, repair, or rental of facilities, land, works, or equipment for use in instruction in S&E. If the facilities or equipment are used for mixed purposes, only the amount used for S&E instruction is included.

S&E FTTGs include all fellowship, traineeship, and training grant programs that are directed primarily for the development of the scientific or technical workforce. Excluded are projects that support research; these activities are to be reported as R&D conduct.

Other g eneral support for S&E was introduced for the FY 2021 data collection and combines the former categories of General support for S&E and Other S&E activities. It includes activities that provide general or nonspecific support related to scientific research and education. These include projects awarded through the NIH Minority Biomedical Research Support for Undergraduate Colleges and NIH Biomedical Support Grants. It also includes S&E activities that cannot be assigned to the categories S&E FTTGs or Facilities and equipment for instruction in S&E, including support for scientific conferences, teacher institutes, and S&E activities for precollege and undergraduate students.

R&D conduct activities are defined as creative and systematic work undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge-including knowledge of people, culture, and society-and to devise new applications using available knowledge.

Includes:

• All of an agency's R&D costs, regardless of whether the funding was from direct appropriations, trust funds, special account receipts, or fees and charges.
• Agency R&D costs for non-U.S. performers.
• Costs of performing, planning, and administering R&D conducted by an agency, including laboratory overhead and pay of military personnel.
• For R&D contracts, includes all of an agency's administrative costs.

• Minor equipment purchases, such as personal computers, standard microscopes, and simple spectrometers.
• Funds transferred to another agency for R&D.

Excludes:

• Reimbursable funds provided to an agency by another federal agency. The originating agency reports these.

• For R&D grants, does not include an agency's administrative costs.

Research is systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or understanding of the subject studied. Research is classified as either basic or applied according to the objectives of the sponsoring agency. Basic research is defined as experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts. Basic research may include activities with broad or general applications in mind, such as the study of how plant genomes change, but should exclude research directed toward a specific application or requirement, such as the optimization of the genome of a specific crop species. Basic research represents DOD Budget Activity 1. Applied research is defined as original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. Applied research is, however, directed primarily toward a specific practical aim or objective. Applied research represents DOD Budget Activity 2.

Experimental development is defined as creative and systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience, which is directed at producing new products or processes or improving existing products or processes. Like research, experimental development will result in gaining additional knowledge.

Experimental development includes:

• The production of materials, devices, and systems or methods, including the design, construction, and testing of experimental prototypes.
• Technology demonstrations, in cases where a system or component is being demonstrated at scale for the first time and where it is realistic to expect additional refinements to the design (feedback R&D) following the demonstration. However, not all activities that are identified as "technology demonstrations" are R&D.

Experimental development excludes:

• User demonstrations where the cost and benefits of a system are being validated for a specific use case. This includes low-rate initial production activities.
• Pre-production development, which is defined as nonexperimental work on a product or system before it goes into full production, including activities such as tooling and development of production facilities. For example, it excludes activities and programs that are categorized as "operational system development" in DOD's budget activity structure. Activities and programs of this type should generally be reported as investments in other major equipment.
• Note: Through the FY 2015 survey, amounts reported by DOD agencies included Budget Activities 1-7, which are classified as RDT&E. As of FY 2016, the budget activity numbers were added to the questionnaire to make it clear that the survey was requesting R&D data, which covered Budget Activities 1-6. The FY 2018 DOD questionnaire was revised to collect RDT&E again by adding operational system development (Budget Activity 7) as a separate category of support.

R&D plant includes spending on both R&D facilities and major equipment as defined in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-11 Section 84 (Schedule C) and includes physical assets, such as land, structures, equipment, and intellectual property (e.g., software or applications) that have an estimated useful life of 2 years or more.

Reporting for R&D plant includes the purchase, construction, manufacture, rehabilitation, or major improvement of physical assets regardless of whether the assets are owned or operated by the federal government, states, municipalities, or private individuals. The cost of the asset includes both its purchase price and all other costs incurred to bring it to a form and location suitable for use.

Obligations for foreign R&D plant are limited to federal funds for facilities that are located abroad and used in support of foreign R&D.

Includes:

• Funding for the construction of facilities that are necessary for the execution of an R&D program. This may include land, major fixed equipment, and supporting infrastructure such as a sewer line, or housing at a remote location. Many laboratory buildings will include a mixture of R&D facilities and office space. The fraction of the building that is considered to be R&D may be calculated based on the percentage of square footage that is used for R&D.
• Acquisition, design, or production of major moveable equipment, such as mass spectrometers, research vessels, DNA sequencers, and other moveable major instrumentation for use in R&D activities.
• Programs of $1 million or more that are devoted to the purchase or construction of R&D major equipment.
• Agency R&D plant costs for non-U.S. performers.

Excludes:

• Minor equipment purchases, such as personal computers, standard microscopes, and simple spectrometers (if part of an R&D activity, report these costs under R&D conduct, not R&D plant).