Faculty research spans a large, federally supported higher-education enterprise. In FY 2024, U.S. higher education R&D expenditures reached $117.7 billion, while 341,350 employed doctoral scientists and engineers worked in four-year institutions across all fields in 2023. These figures describe different measurement years and scopes, so they should be read as complementary indicators rather than a single headcount or budget total.
Contents
- At a glance
- Higher education research spending
- Federal research funding
- AAU research universities
- Faculty workforce and academic rank
- Research fields
- Life, computer, mathematics, and social sciences
At a glance
The National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey reported $117.7 billion in higher education R&D expenditures in FY 2024. Spending increased by $8.9 billion from FY 2023, an 8.1% year-over-year rise. Since FY 2014, higher education R&D grew at an average compound annual rate of 5.7% in current dollars and 3.0% in constant dollars. Source: NSF HERD 2024.
The NSF’s 2023 Survey of Doctorate Recipients counted 341,350 employed doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions across all fields. That total included 199,700 men and 141,650 women. The same table counted 113,000 full professors and 65,450 assistant professors. Source: NSF SDR 2023, Table 17.
| Measure | Value | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| Higher education R&D expenditures | $117.7 billion | FY 2024 |
| Employed doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions | 341,350 | 2023 |
| AAU member research universities | 71 | Current AAU membership count in the supplied AAU measure |
| Federally funded university R&D | $64.6 billion | FY 2024 |
These measures answer different questions. R&D expenditures describe institutional research activity and funding. The doctorate-recipient figures describe employed doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions. The Association of American Universities measures describe its member research universities and their reported economic and research contributions. Source: AAU By the Numbers.
Higher education research spending
Federal sources funded 55% of all FY 2024 higher education R&D expenditures. Federal funding also accounted for $5.0 billion of the $8.9 billion increase from FY 2023 to FY 2024. Institution funds contributed another $2.5 billion to the annual increase. State and local government funding rose by $633 million, while business-funded R&D increased by $131 million.
Other sources made smaller additions to the year-over-year change. Nonprofit-funded R&D increased by $16 million, and all other sources increased by $530 million. Together, these figures show that the FY 2024 increase included several funding streams, with federal and institution funds providing the largest reported additions. Source: NSF HERD 2024.
The longer-term growth rates should be interpreted with their dollar basis in mind. The 5.7% average compound annual rate since FY 2014 is stated in current dollars, while the 3.0% rate is stated in constant dollars. Current-dollar growth reflects nominal spending; constant-dollar growth adjusts the comparison to a constant-dollar basis. The two rates therefore provide different views of the same decade-long period rather than duplicate estimates.
Federal research funding
The FY 2024 federal funding profile was concentrated among several agencies. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services accounted for 55% of federally funded university R&D and funded $35.5 billion of the $64.6 billion in federally funded university R&D. Source: NSF HERD 2024.
The National Science Foundation, HHS, and the Department of Defense together funded $32.1 billion in university research according to the AAU’s reported figures. Because this is an AAU measure and the NSF HERD figures describe FY 2024 higher education R&D, the source labels and measurement context matter when comparing them. Source: AAU By the Numbers.
Other agency-specific FY 2024 figures were as follows:
- The Department of Energy funded $2.9 billion in higher education R&D, including $1.3 billion in engineering R&D and $1.1 billion in physical sciences R&D. DOE funding increased by $270 million; 44% was engineering R&D and 36% was physical sciences R&D.
- NASA funded $2.4 billion in higher education R&D, an increase of $73 million. NASA funded $795 million in physical sciences R&D and $742 million in engineering R&D; those categories represented 34% and 31% of NASA funds, respectively.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded $2.0 billion in higher education R&D, an increase of $275 million. USDA funded $1.6 billion in life sciences R&D, which represented 82% of its funding.
- All other federal sources funded $4.5 billion in higher education R&D and grew 10% from FY 2023 to FY 2024.
The category percentages are agency-specific shares of the reported FY 2024 funding, not shares of all U.S. university R&D. Source: NSF HERD 2024.
AAU research universities
The Association of American Universities reported 71 member research universities. In 2024, those institutions awarded 50% of all research doctoral degrees and 22% of all undergraduate degrees in science and engineering. These percentages describe degrees awarded by AAU institutions in 2024, not the share of all faculty or all universities.
AAU universities paid $127.5 billion in salaries in 2024 and employed 912,626 people. They produced 4,963 patents and fostered 592 start-ups. The AAU also reported that 33 member universities were among the top 50 worldwide for producing venture-capital-backed entrepreneurs and that member institutions generated 407 start-up companies in their home states. Source: AAU By the Numbers.
The AAU figures also include student-loan measures for 2023. Only 25% of AAU undergraduates took out federal student loans, and the AAU undergraduate federal loan default rate was 2.4%. For comparison, the reported federal loan default rate was 5.4% for nonprofit universities and 9.2% for for-profit universities. These are loan measures for 2023, not research-funding measures. Source: AAU By the Numbers.
Faculty workforce and academic rank
In the 2023 NSF SDR figures for four-year institutions, science fields accounted for 272,100 employed doctoral scientists and engineers. Women in science fields totaled 116,100. The all-field total was 341,350, so the science-field count is a defined subset of the broader table rather than an additional workforce total. Source: NSF SDR 2023, Table 17.
The reported all-field gender counts were 199,700 men and 141,650 women. Rank data included 113,000 full professors and 65,450 assistant professors. These values identify selected groups in the employed doctoral scientist and engineer population; they do not provide a complete rank distribution in the supplied figures.
For teaching guides and research planning, academic rank can help frame who is represented in a faculty dataset. However, rank is not a measure of research quality, funding success, or disciplinary impact. The numbers below are counts of doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions in 2023, grouped by field and rank where reported.
Research fields
Biological, agricultural, and environmental life sciences totaled 94,000 employed doctoral scientists and engineers. Women accounted for 43,000 in that broad field grouping. The same field grouping included 26,600 full professors, 18,150 associate professors, and 18,200 assistant professors.
Several narrower life-science categories were also reported. Agricultural and food sciences totaled 7,200. Biochemistry and biophysics totaled 10,550. Cell, cellular biology, and molecular biology totaled 12,200. Microbiological sciences and immunology totaled 8,900, including 4,450 women. Natural resources and conservation totaled 3,350, zoology totaled 3,150, and other biological sciences totaled 48,650.
These categories should not be added casually to the broad life-sciences total: the supplied figures present them as field categories within the broader classification, and overlapping or hierarchical categories can describe the same overall field structure. Source: NSF SDR 2023, Table 17.
Physical sciences, geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences totaled 12,450 employed doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions. Physical sciences and related fields had 33,600 full professors. The different wording and scope of these two entries means they should be retained as reported rather than treated as a directly comparable pair.
Life, computer, mathematics, and social sciences
Computer and information sciences totaled 12,400 employed doctoral scientists and engineers in 2023. The field included 4,200 full professors, 3,400 associate professors, and 3,050 assistant professors. These rank figures provide three selected rank counts for the field and should not be interpreted as a complete total without the remaining categories.
Mathematics and statistics totaled 19,900 employed doctoral scientists and engineers. The reported rank counts were 7,950 full professors, 5,150 associate professors, and 3,800 assistant professors. Because the field label combines mathematics and statistics, the supplied figures do not support a separate count for statistics alone.
Social sciences totaled 17,700 employed doctoral scientists and engineers, while female social scientists totaled 17,300. The large difference between these two reported values is a reason to preserve the source labels and avoid calculating an unsupported gender share from them. Social sciences also had 43,450 full professors in the supplied 2023 figure.
Taken together, the workforce figures show why faculty research statistics need careful scope labels. Funding totals refer to institutional R&D expenditures and agency sources in FY 2024. Workforce totals refer to employed doctoral scientists and engineers in four-year institutions in 2023. AAU figures refer to member research universities and include degree, employment, innovation, and loan measures for the periods stated by the Association of American Universities. Sources: NSF HERD 2024, NSF SDR 2023, Table 17, and AAU By the Numbers.