Digest of Education Statistics: 2020
Digest of Education Statistics: 2020

NCES 2022-009
February 2021

Appendix A.4. National Science Foundation

Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development

The annual Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development is the primary source of information about federal funding for research and development in the United States. It is used by policymakers in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government in determining policies, laws, and regulations affecting science; it is also used by those who follow science trends in every sector of the economy, including university administrators and professors, economic and political analysts, research and development managers inside and outside the government, the science press, and leading members of the science community in the United States and around the world.

The survey’s target population consists of the federal agencies that conduct research and development programs, excluding the CIA. The federal agencies in the sampling frame are those identified from information in the President’s budget submitted to Congress.

In the survey cycle for fiscal years 2019–20, a total of 33 federal agencies (15 federal departments and 18 independent agencies) reported research and development data. Because multiple subdivisions of some federal departments completed the survey, there were 83 agency-level respondents: 5 federal departments, 60 agencies within another 10 federal departments, and 18 independent agencies.

Federal funds data are for the fiscal year just completed and the current fiscal year. Actual data are collected for the fiscal year just completed; estimated dataare obtained for the current fiscal year.

The data are collected and managed online; this system was designed to help improve survey reporting by offering respondents direct online reporting and editing.

There is no known unit or item nonresponse, so no weighting or imputation methods are used; NCSES assumes a blank field is zero for estimation purposes. The information included in this survey has been stable since fiscal year 1973, when federal obligations for research to universities and colleges by agency and detailed science and engineering fields were added to the survey.

Further information on federal funds for research and development may be obtained from

Christopher Pece
Project Officer
Research and Development Statistics Program
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
2415 Eisenhower Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22314
cpece@nsf.gov
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyfedfunds/

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Survey of Earned Doctorates

The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) has collected basic statistics from the universe of doctoral recipients in the United States each year since 1957. It is sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by three other federal agencies: the National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, and National Endowment for the Humanities.  

With the assistance of institutional coordinators at each doctorate-awarding institution, a survey form or web link is distributed to each person completing the requirements for a research doctorate. Of the 55,703 persons granted a research doctorate in 2019, 92.1 percent completed the survey. The survey questionnaire obtained information on sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, citizenship, disabilities, specialty field of doctorate, educational institutions attended, financial support, education debt, postgraduation plans, and educational attainment of parents.

Further information on the Survey of Earned Doctorates may be obtained from

Kelly Kang
Project Officer
Human Resources Statistics Program
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
2415 Eisenhower Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22314
kkang@nsf.gov
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/

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Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering

The Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, also known as the graduate student survey (GSS), is an annual census of all U.S. academic institutions granting research-based master’s degrees or doctorates in science, engineering, or selected health fields. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, the survey collects counts of enrolled graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other doctorate-holding nonfaculty researchers at these institutions by demographics and other characteristics, such as source of financial support. Results are used to assess shifts in graduate enrollment, shifts in postdoctoral researcher and nonfaculty researcher appointments, and trends in financial support.

Data collection for the 2019 GSS began in fall 2019. The 2019 survey universe included 20,249 units at 714 academic institutions in the United States that granted research-based master's degrees or doctorates in science, engineering, or selected health fields.

New procedures to improve coverage of GSS-eligible units were introduced in the 2007 survey cycle and were continued in subsequent cycles. Increased emphasis was given to updating the unit list by providing an exhaustive list of GSS-eligible programs within existing GSS fields. In previous years, only a representative list was provided for each GSS field, which may have resulted in not reporting all eligible units. The set of GSS-eligible fields was also modified. Due to these changes, data for 2007 and later years are not directly comparable with data from previous years.

More recently, the survey universe was modified in 2014 to include 151 new institutions and exclude 2 for-profit institutions; these changes were the result of a comprehensive frame evaluation study conducted from 2010 to 2013 and the annual frame evaluation conducted in the 2013–14 cycle. In 2015 and 2016, some institutions became newly eligible for GSS, some became ineligible, some changed GSS degree-granting status, and some merged. As a result of these changes, the total number of institutions included in the GSS increased from 706 in 2014 to 714 in 2016. And although the number included in the GSS decreased to 703 in 2017 (because the number of institutions becoming ineligible that year was greater than the number of institutions that were added), it returned to its 2016 level the following year (the number was 715 in 2018 and 714 in 2019).

Further information on the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering may be obtained from

Mike Yamaner
Project Officer
Human Resources Statistics Program
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
2415 Eisenhower Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22314
myamaner@nsf.gov
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygradpostdoc/