Federal Science and Engineering Support to Higher Education Increased 10% in FY 2021 | NSF

1Obligations represent the amount for orders placed, contracts awarded, services received, and similar transactions during a given period, regardless of when the funds were appropriated or when future payment of money is required.

2Higher education institutions are institutions that engage primarily in providing resident or accredited instruction for a not less than a 2-year program above the secondary school level that is acceptable for full credit toward a bachelor’s degree or that provide not less than 1-year program of training above the secondary school level that prepares students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation. Included are colleges of liberal arts; schools of arts and sciences; professional schools, as in engineering and medicine, including hospitals, clinics, and research centers that are financially constituents of universities; and agricultural experiment stations.

3See the full set of data tables: table 8.

4Details available in the full set of data tables: table 17.

5University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) were officially established in 1996 by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USDR&E) and served to formalize strategic relationships with research centers affiliated with universities that in some cases data back to World War II. DOD-supported UARCs are all nonprofit research organizations affiliated with a university and have a set of core competencies that are tailored to the long-term needs of the DOD. DOD’s long-term strategic relationship with UARCs requires them to provide and maintain advanced and sophisticated engineering, research, or development capabilities essential to the DOD’s mission and operations. UARCs operate as independent, trusted advisors and honest brokers, agreeing to limit their operations in order to be free from real or perceived conflicts of interest. Each UARC is sponsored by a primary sponsor who is responsible for implementing UARC policies and procedures, monitoring performance, approving all work executed by the UARC, and conducting a comprehensive review every 5 years. Although any university can receive funds from DOD to perform work, that does not make them a UARC. Rather, all DOD UARCs are approved by USDR&E after a rigorous review and competitive selection process conducted by the proposed primary sponsor. Only USDR&E can establish, transfer, or terminate a UARC.

6Details available in the full set of data tables: table 18.

7Details available in the full set of data tables: table 21.

8Details available in the full set of data tables: table 26.

9HHEs are those institutions whose full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment of undergraduate students is at least 25% Hispanic, according to fall 2020 enrollment data self-reported by the institutions in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NCES determined FTE enrollment by calculating that approximately three part-time students are equivalent to one full-time student.

10Details available in the full set of data tables: table 27.

11The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU as “any historically Black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of Black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary (of Education) to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.”

12Details available in the full set of data tables: table 23.

13Details available in the full set of data tables: table 26.

14The list of tribal colleges and universities is from the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (see https://sites.ed.gov/whiaiane/tribes-tcus/tribal-colleges-and-universities/). In accordance with Executive Order No. 13270, “Tribal Colleges and Universities,” as extended by Executive Order No. 13316, the list includes all of the colleges cited in section 532 of the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 301 note), any other institution that qualifies for funding under the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), and Diné College, which is authorized in the Navajo Community College Assistance Act of 1978, Public Law 95-471, title II (25 U.S.C. 640a note). The statutory definition of American Indian tribally controlled colleges and universities, to which the Higher Education Act refers at §316(b)(3), 20 U.S.C. 1059c(b)(3), is in section 2(a)(4) of the Tribally Controlled College and University Assistance Act of 1978, 25 U.S.C. 1801(a)(4).

15Details available in the full set of data tables: table 27.