Industry Pays Record Share of US Research Tab

After a long downward trend in research and development funding in the US, an estimated $220.6 billion -- an inflation-adjusted 5.3 percent increase -- was spent in 1998. According to a National Science Foundation report, industry provided 65.1 percent of the funding. Previously the primary provider of the nation's research funding, federal support amounted to 30.2 percent, and the remaining 4.7 percent came from state governments, universities and nonprofit organizations. Between 1994 and 1998, R&D grew by 4.7 percent per year despite no real growth in federal financing. For the same period, industrial support grew 7.3 percent yearly.