Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



69 



Table 7. — Research expenditures by broad fields of research and by Deparlmenls, regvlar funds only, fiscal years 19S7 and 19S8 



[In thousands of dollars] 



■Some activities defined as "research" for this study have not been included as such in tbe annual figure for research published by the Department of Agriculture. 



Research Expenditures by Broad Fields 



Nevertheless it seemed desii-able to make some at- 

 tempt to distinguish between tlie amounts spent for 

 research in the broad fields of the natural sciences and 

 technology on one hand and the social sciences and sta- 

 tistics on the other. In addition, two categories of 

 activities that are not easily labeled either "natural" 

 or "social" science are included in the definition of 

 "research" adopted for purposes of this study. The 

 first of these categories consists of surveys for basic in- 

 ventory or mapping purposes and the second group 

 is made up of aids to research througli library, 

 archival, or administrative service that cannot be easily 

 allocated to either the natural or social sciences, nor 

 prorated aritlmietically. Allocation of research funds 

 among these four fields was attempted, although arbi- 

 trary classifications were sometimes necessary. 



Table 7 gives a summary of the results of the at- 

 tempt to classify research expenditures from regular 

 funds into these four major groups. These data were 

 compiled from the amounts by agency shown in table 

 11. A similar distribution of research expenditures 

 from emergency funds was found impossible except 

 for an approximation for the Government as a whole, 

 which is given in table 8. In addition, table 12 lists 

 the amounts spent on research by seven independent 

 agencies financed wholly from emergency funds. 



Aside from possible usefulness in comparing the im- 

 portance as measured by cost of these broad subject 

 fields in Federal research programs, tables 7, 8, and 11 

 will permit a rough recomputation of "research ex- 

 penditures" for anyone who objects to including one or 

 more of these four general fields within that term. 



In the fiscal year 1937 the natural sciences and tech- 

 nology accounted for about 68 percent of the Federal 



research expenditures from regular funds, and in- 

 creased in the fiscal year 1938 to about 60 percent of 

 the total. If expenditures for surveys and maps, and 

 unallocated library, archival, and administrative aids 

 are subtracted from the total, the cost of research in 

 the natural sciences and technology would become over 

 70 percent of the remaining amounts spent for research 

 from regular funds in each of the fiscal years 1937 and 

 1938. 



Table 8. — Percentage distribution, by broad subject fields, of 

 estimated research expenditures from regular and etnergenov 

 funds, fiscal years 1937 and 1938 ^ 



1 Estimates for amounts and distribution of emergency expenditures are based on 

 (1) published data in Budget, 1959, (2) special reports from tlie Works Progress Admin- 

 istration and (3) direct reports from 14 other Federal agencies. 



While research carried on from regular funds is 

 largely in the field of the natural sciences and teclinol- 

 ogj, the social sciences are the chief beneficiaries of 

 research from emergency funds. The estimates in table 

 8, pieced together from several fragmentary sources, 

 indicate that not less than two-thirds of emergency 

 funds were expended for research in the field of social 



