image: In 2011, US-located companies spent $25.3 billion for extramural research and development performed by domestic organizations. Pharmaceuticals manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing have accounted for the majority of these expenditures over the past two decades. view more
Credit: National Science Foundation
In 2011, U.S.-located companies spent $29.6 billion for extramural (purchased and collaborative) research and development performed by domestic and overseas organizations, according to statistics from the Business R&D and Innovation Survey. This amount includes contract or otherwise purchased R&D ($24 billion) and payments to R&D collaborators ($5.6 billion). Most of these extramural R&D expenditures involve domestic providers and partners.
The amount that U.S.-located companies pay to other U.S.-located organizations for extramural R&D has grown. In 2011, extramural R&D was more than 10 percent of the amount that companies based in the United States spent on their company-funded, company-performed U.S. R&D. Comparable estimates from the Survey of Industrial Research and Development put this ratio under 4 percent in 1991. The growth in the relative size of domestic extramural R&D in the business sector is the result of differing rates of growth in total R&D spending among industries and of changes in the importance of external partners within industries.
These and other findings are from a new report by the National Center of Science and Engineering Statistics: Extramural R&D Funding by U.S.-Located Businesses Nears $30 Billion in 2011.
Please visit the NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics for more reports and other products.