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Growing Economy Fails to Lift Research Spending
Engineering research spending by federal and state governments and industry remained mostly flat from 2011 to 2015 despite the nation’s recovery from the recent recession and a steady decline in unemployment, ASEE data show. The trend reflected stringent government budgets and a reluctance by the private sector to pick up the slack. Certain disciplines, however, fared better than others, as the accompanying graphics illustrate. Federal research investments were spread the most widely, with “other engineering disciplines”—those outside the fields recorded by ASEE or hybrid combinations of fields—receiving more than the runner-up discipline, electrical-computer engineering. Biomedical engineering grew noticeably at the federal level between 2011 and 2014 but then flattened out. States spent more by far on civil engineering research than on other fields, but all top five disciplines showed declines. Industry favored electrical-computer engineering, with mechanical engineering a close second.
Data source: ASEE’s 2015 Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges.
Compiled by Austin Ryland
Infographic by Francis Igot