In 2017’s, fiscal year survey the NSF included 903 universities. Total R&D expenditure reached USD 75.3 billion, up 4.7% from USD 71.9 billion in FY 2016. The top 10 institutions accounted for 18.4% percent of the total value.

 

University of Calofornia achived highest y-o-y growth in FY 2017, which is 8.53%, and University of Pennsylvania has registered highst CAGR growth (2013-2017), 13.69% - among the top 10 Universities.

 

Here is the ranking of top 10 U.S. Universities based on their R&D spending in USD billion for FY 2017. Next survey data will be available end of 2019.

 

 

The Higher Education Research and Development Survey's prime aim is to collect information on R&D expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities. The survey collects information on R&D expenditures by field of research, source of funds and also gathers information on types of research, expenses, and headcounts of R&D personnel.

 

Johns Hopkins University's year-over-year spending on research has grown by 5.35%. The University ranked 1 in all U.S. universities in research and development spending for the 39th consecutive year in fiscal year 2017. University’s research spending reached record USD 2.562 billion. The key projects contributed in spending are like enhancing drone safety, growing retinas in the lab to find out how colour vision is developed and improving methods of studying cell mechanics to advance cancer research. Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) alone spent USD 1.47 which 57.4% of total expenditure.

Source: University Website.

 

 

Johns Hopkins University's research spending grew from USD 2.16 bn (FY 2013) to USD 2.56 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 4.34 %

 

University of Michigan's year-over-year spending on research has grown by 6.99%. U-M atop the R&D expenditures list for public universities and behind only Johns Hopkins University on the list of all U.S. universities and colleges. R&D spending at U-M increased 18.3 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2010, up from 14.9 percent growth the previous fiscal year. According to recent updates for fiscal 2018, University has spent USD 1.55 billion that spanned July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018. That marks a 4.4 percent increase from FY 2017.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health and is throughout the largest external sponsor of U-M research, granted USD 579 million to U-M in FY 2018.

Source: University Website.

 

University of Michigan's research spending grew from USD 1.37 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.53 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 2.8 %.

 

University of California's year-over-year spending on research has grown by 8.35%. Research and social service missions of University of California (UC’s) are supported through contracts and grants awarded by a diverse combination of federal, state and private sponsors. During 2016-17, UC received about 27,000 sponsored project awards from 3,300 sponsors — federal and state agencies, local governments, domestic and international corporations, non-profit organizations and other research universities.

Source: University Website.

 

University of California's research spending grew from USD 1.04 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.40 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 7.71 %.

 

University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) year-over-year spending on research has grown by 6.20%. Penn has 142 centres and institutes on campus dedicated to conducting research. Penn also started a major research and development project by opening the Pennovation Center, an on-campus incubator for entrepreneurship and technology innovation. Penn is pioneer in fields of medicine, technology, business, science, and applied sciences. Penn’s study on Cell morphology and Nano Materials are few of the ground-breaking research in last few years.

Source: University Website.

 

Penn's research spending grew from USD 0.82 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.37 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 13.69 %.

 

The University of Washington (UW) is known for its strategic, multidisciplinary research. The UW increased overall research and development by about 5.51 percent from the prior year, reporting a total of USD 1.348 billion investment from all funding sources. University has 280+ research institutes dedicated to behavioural science, medicine, applied sciences and others.

Source: University Website.

 

UW's research spending grew from USD 1.19 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.34 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 3.01 %.
 

University of Wisconsin remains a research powerhouse with more than USD 1.19 billion in annual expenditures for research across all fields, about half of which comes from federal awards. Overall R&D expenditures from all sources increased by 3.48% from the last year. For instance, The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (The Research Center is one of three bioenergy research centres established in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Energy. It is led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison) for an additional five years of funding to develop sustainable alternatives to transportation fuels and products currently derived from petroleum.

Source: University Website.

University of Wisconsin's research spending grew from USD 1.12 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.19 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 1.53 %.

University of California (UC) roughly has 155,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees at the University, nearly 27,500, or about 18 percent, were paid with research funds. This research group includes Students, Postdoctoral researchers, Other staff and Other academics. University's research expenditures in all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and medical fields represented over 90 percent of total research expenditures. UC’s overall expenditure on research for FY 2017 was USD 1.13 billion, which is a 4.63% up from FY 2016. Faculty UC is a national and global leader in research on climate science, including monitoring atmospheric changes and global temperature rise, as well as assessing the impacts of climate change on marine and land-based ecosystems and the built environment.

Source: University Website.

UC's research spending grew from USD 1.07 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.13 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 1.37 %.

Duke University’s overall expenditure on research for FY 2017 was USD 1.12 billion, which is a 6.67% up from FY 2016. University’s main areas of research are Computational Mechanics & Scientific Computing, Environmental Health Engineering, Geomechanics & Geophysics for Energy and the Environment, Hydrology & Fluid Dynamics and others.

Source: University Website.

 

Duke University’s research spending grew from USD 0.99 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.12 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 3.13 %.

Harvard's research is supported by more than USD 1.12 billion sponsored research funds in FY 2017. Advanced research is carried out by the departments of the Schools and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and at more than 100 research centres, on campus and around the world. For instance, federal scientific research funding able to assemble large, interdisciplinary teams to develop soft, wearable robotics that can help those disabled by stroke and other conditions, and even boost the abilities of healthy people.

Source: University Website.

Harvard University’s research spending grew from USD 1.01 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.12 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 2.62 %.
 

Research in Stanford University was supported by more than USD 1.10 billion sponsored research funds in FY 2017, up by 3.77% from last fiscal. There are more than 6,000 externally sponsored projects currently going, with the total budget for sponsored projects at USD 1.63 billion for 2018-19, including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). Of these projects, the federal government sponsors approximately 80 percent, including SLAC. Also, nearly USD 330 million in support comes from non-federal funding sources.

Source: University Website.

Stanford University’s research spending grew from USD 0.94 bn (FY 2013) to USD 1.10 bn (FY 2017). Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 4.01 %.