Percentage of total basic research obligations directed 



to universities and colleges, by field, 1974''' 



Fields of science^o NSF HEW DOD USDA 



Life sciences 83 73 30 24 



Physical sciences 82 84 36 8 



Environmental sciences 63 — 54 22 



Engineering 97 92 40 12 



Social sciences 90 37 — 56 



AEC 



NASA 



These fields of science and engineering are 

 supported by various combinations of Federal 

 agencies, as indicated in figure 3-10 which 

 presents the proportion of Federal obligations 

 provided by each of the six agencies to univer- 

 sities and colleges for basic research in each 

 major field. The figure indicates that either one 

 or two agencies alone provided at least 70 

 percent of all Federal obligations for basic 

 research in each field. The NSF and HEW 

 together, for example, provided nearly 90 

 percent of all federally obligated dollars for basic 

 research in the life sciences in 1974, almost 83 

 percent of the obligations for psychology and the 

 social sciences, and approximately 75 percent for 

 chemistry. Similarly, two agencies (DOD and 

 NSF) accounted for more than 85 percent of the 

 six agencies' obligations for the environmental 

 sciences and some 80 percent of those for 

 engineering, while the AEC and NSF in com- 

 bination provided nearly 80 percent of all 

 obligations for physics research in universities 

 and colleges. 



The fact that the NSF in 1974 provided either 

 the largest or next largest amount of basic 

 research obligations in the several fields — and 

 nearly 35 percent of all obligations from the six 

 agencies — underscores the extent of dependen- 

 cy on that agency by universities and colleges for 

 support of basic research. 



Institutional concentration of basic research 



Basic research is concentrated in institutions 

 which award advanced degrees in science and 

 engineering. The 280 universities which grant 

 doctorate degrees in the sciences and engineer- 

 ing accounted for 98 percent of academic basic 

 research expenditures in 1974, with 82 percent 



of the total expenditures concentrated in 100 

 such institutions.-' Little change occurred in this 

 pattern of institutional concentration during the 

 1964-74 period as shown in the table below, 

 although there were considerable shifts in the 

 positions of specific institutions. 



Percentage of expenditures for basic research 



by groups of institutions ranked in order 



of expenditures, 1964 and 1974 



Year 



First First First First First First 

 10 20 40 60 80 100 



1964 

 1974 



The institutional concentration of R&D 

 expenditures varies among the five broad 

 scientific areas (figure 3-11)." The life sciences 

 exhibited the least concentration in 1974, and 

 the environmental sciences the greatest. The 

 social sciences, physical sciences, and engineer- 

 ing had similar patterns of distribution or 

 concentration, although varying considerably 

 among individual institutions. The ten academic 

 institutions with the largest R&D expenditures 

 in the life sciences, for example, reported 23 

 percent of the total for all universities in 1974, 

 compared with a concentration of 47 percent of 

 all environmental science R&D expenditures in 

 the first ten institutions for that field. No 

 university ranked among the first ten in all five 

 fields, and only one university held this position 

 in four of the fields — reflecting a diversity of 

 field concentration patterns even within the 

 major research universities. 



" Ihid.. and special tabulations. 



2° See Appendix table 3-6a for descriptions of these fields. 



-' Expi^ntiiturt'i tor Scientifii lirid Etignteeriug Activiiies ai llniver- 

 itliei ami Collegei, FY 1973. National Science Foundation (NSF 

 75-316-A), and special tabulations. 



-^ Data on basic research expenditures alone are not 

 available for separate fields of science and individual 

 institutions. An approximation is available, however, in the 

 form of total R&D expenditures by these institutions in 

 scientific fields, the largest component of which is basic 

 research. 



64 



