"INDUSTRIAL FUNDING OF ACADEMIC R&D CONTINUES TO DECLINE IN FY 2004"

Read the full InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation (April, 2006, PDF).

"Industrial funding for research and development in academic science and engineering (S&E) dropped by 2.6 percent in FY 2004, the third consecutive year of declining support from this sector, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges (table 1). The industrial sector is the first source of academic R&D funding to show a multiyear decline since the survey began, in FY 1953. Industry’s FY 2004 percentage decline was more substantial than its percentage reductions in previous years (1.1 percent in 2003, 1.5 percent in 2002). Industrial support was $2.1 billion in FY 2004, down from a high of $2.2 billion in FY 2001. Industry’s share of academic R&D support in FY 2004 equaled its share in FY 1983, at 4.9 percent."