Federal obligations for basic research in Fiscal 

 Year 1974. Three of the areas— life, physical, and 

 social sciences — had reached their highest level 

 of current dollar obligations in 1974, whereas 

 obligations for the environmental sciences and 

 engineering declined after 1972. In constant 

 dollars, basic research obligations for all areas 

 other than the life sciences were lower in 1974 

 than in some previous year. The largest decline 

 occurred in the physical sciences, where con- 

 stant dollar obligations decreased by 24 percent 

 between 1969 and 1974. 



A major and rapid shift in the distribution of 

 basic research obligations among these areas of 

 science occurred in the life and physical sciences. 

 The proportion of obligations for the life 

 sciences increased from 27 percent of the total 

 obligations in 1969 to 34 percent in 1974. Over 

 the same period, the fraction of total basic 

 research obligations for the physical sciences 

 dropped from 39 percent in 1969 to 32 percent in 

 1974. This shift from the physical to the life 

 sciences is due to reductions or relatively slow 

 growth in basic research obligations from DOD, 

 NASA, and the AEC — the major sources of 

 funding for the physical sciences — coupled with 

 substantial increases in HEW's obligations for 

 the life sciences (figure 3-5). 



Within these broad areas, large changes have 

 occurred in individual fields in recent years 

 (Appendix table 3-6). In the area of physical 

 sciences, for example. Federal obligations for 

 basic research in physics were at their highest 

 level in 1967 in constant dollars before declining 

 28 percent by 1974 when obligations were 

 approximately at a pre-1963 level. In the life 

 sciences, basic research obligations for the 

 biological sciences grew steadily, whereas 

 Clinical medical sciences declined 58 percent in 

 constant dollars between the peak funding year 

 of 1967 and 1974. 



BASIC RESEARCH IN UNIVERSITIES AND 

 COLLEGES 



Universities and colleges perform the bulk of 

 the Nation's basic research. They accounted for 

 54 percent of the total national expenditures for 

 such research in 1974 (figure 3-2). The presently 

 dominant position of these institutions in 

 fundamental research is the culmination of a 

 long-term trend. In 1953, universities and 

 colleges accounted for only 26 percent of the 

 total expenditures for basic research, compared 



with 35 percent for industry and 24 percent for 

 intramural research by the Federal Government. 

 As funding of basic research rose over the 

 years — primarily as the result of increasing 

 Federal support — the fraction of the total going 

 to universities and colleges grew rapidly, much 

 more rapidly than funding in the industry and 

 Federal intramural sectors. In consequence, the 

 percentage of the total funds for basic research 

 accounted for by these two sectors had declined 

 to 16 percent each in 1974. There was little 

 change in the share of basic research expen- 

 ditures accounted for by the nonprofit in- 

 stitutions and the university FFRDC's, with each 

 accounting for some 7 percent of basic research 

 expenditures throughout the last decade 

 (Appendix table 3-2). 



The significant role of universities and 

 colleges in basic research is reflected also in the 

 fact that scientists and engineers employed by 

 these institutions are responsible for a large 

 proportion of all U.S. scientific research 

 reports — approximately three-fourths of the 

 total in 1973 (Appendix table 3-21). The research 

 performed by these institutions, moreover, is 

 increasingly the basis for advances in technology 

 (figure 3-25). 



Basic research in universities and colleges 

 ranges from the efforts of individual scientists 

 and engineers to those of large research teams 

 which often are organized around the use of 

 unique equipment and facilities. Most of the 

 research takes place in universities which have 

 graduate-level programs offering doctorate 

 degrees; these institutions reported 98 percent 

 of all academic basic research expenditures in 

 1974 11 Jhjs concentration reflects, in part, the 

 close relationship between research and 

 graduate education in science and engineering. 

 Research is an integral part of graduate educa- 

 tion in these areas and, indeed, students are 

 involved in performing much of the research. 

 Graduate students in chemistry, for example, 

 were coauthors of 56 percent of the research 

 reports published in 1971 by institutions awar- 

 ding doctorate degrees in that field. i- 



Expenditures by universities and colleges for 

 basic research (from all funding sources com- 

 bined) increased continuously from 1960 to 1974 



" Expemiilures for Scientific and Engineering Aclivilies al Univer- 

 sities and Colleges, FY 1973, National Science Foundation (NSF 

 75-316-A). 



■' Directory of Graduate Research. American Chemical Society, 

 1971. 



59 



