Federal R&D Performance and Funding

The U.S. government supports and facilitates the nation's R&D system through various policy avenues. The most direct of these are the R&D activities conducted by federal organizations (whether agency intramural laboratories and facilities or FFRDCs) and the funding for R&D provided to other performers (such as businesses and academic institutions).20 This section provides statistical detail on these federally performed and funded R&D activities?in particular, how the funding has been allocated among differing national objectives, how current federal spending on R&D differs across the agencies, and how the current spending is allocated among differing research fields. The next section compares federal R&D spending priorities with those of national governments in the other major R&D-performing countries.

For definitions of key federal budget terms used in this section, see Federal Budgetary Concepts and Related Terms.