Science Philanthropy Indicators Report 2025

By Christopher L. Martin, Kate E. Lowry, Robert W. Conn, France A. Córdova

Introduction & Key Findings

As the data in our report illustrate, science philanthropy cannot replace federal funding at universities and nonprofit research institutions. Rather, federal support for the scientific infrastructure, human capital, and capabilities that have been built over decades must remain in place for philanthropy to have its greatest impact as a nimble, catalytic, and risk-taking complement to government funding.

The Science Philanthropy Alliance is pleased to partner with the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Frontiers in Science and Innovation Policy (FSIP) Program to release its second Science Philanthropy Indicators Report in an interactive format. Using National Science Foundation (NSF) data, this report examines research and development (R&D) funding in the United States through a philanthropic lens, with a focus on the higher education and nonprofit research sectors.

The Science Philanthropy Indicators Report features the latest available NSF data, representing a 70-year time series from 1953 to 2023. It offers a new look at historical trends for specific fields and for graduate students and postdocs, including international students. This report builds on the Alliance’s inaugural Science Philanthropy Indicators Report and FSIP’s Science, Philanthropy, and American Leadership, both published in 2023. Our partnership seeks to highlight the role of philanthropy as an important sector of the research enterprise and to encourage more flexible, high-risk, and long-term funding for scientific discovery.

Below we highlight several key findings from each section of the interactive report. We invite you to explore the data for the fields and areas that you are most interested in.

Note: The report was updated in January 2026 to include newly released NSF data on university R&D expenditures for 2024. For the latest, see “R&D By Field.”

15%

The percentage of U.S. R&D spending that supports basic research

$16.8B

The amount of current philanthropic funding for basic and applied R&D in 2023

$7.4B

The amount of legacy philanthropic funding for basic and applied R&D in 2023

$19.2B

The amount of research expenditures self-funded by universities in 2023

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U.S. Research & Development: Overview

Basic research is the foundation of future innovation and progress, with fundamental discoveries very often leading to new technologies and societal benefits. Yet, basic research represents only 15% of U.S. R&D spending in 2023, which totaled $939B in 2023. Applied research, which is basic research aimed at solving some problem, represents an additional 18% and the remainder is for development.
Most basic research and a smaller fraction of applied research is performed by universities and nonprofit research organizations, totaling $114.7B in 2023. The federal government is by far the largest funder of research at these institutions, supporting $58.6B in 2023. This represents 51% of the total, down from more than 70% in the 1960s as funding from other sources has increased.
We estimate that the total philanthropic contribution for basic and applied research at universities and nonprofit research organizations is $24.2B in 2023, representing 21% of the total support. This includes $16.8B in current philanthropy from nonprofit sources and $7.4B in legacy philanthropy (the annual payout from endowments built up from past giving and investment gains).
Universities are increasingly self-funding their research expenditures through additional non-philanthropic revenue sources such as patent revenue, patient care, tuition, debt financing, and more. This represents $19.2B in 2023, or 17% of the total support.
If the President’s Budget Request for 2026 were enacted, we estimate that federal funding for basic and applied research at universities and nonprofit research institutions would drop from $58.6B to $36.9B, or by 37%. This would be less than the amount of federal research funding available nearly a quarter-century ago.

Computer and information sciences

Social sciences

Life sciences

mathematics and statistics

This is some text The science fields that have grown the most in support over the last decadeinside of a div block.

U.S. Research & Development: By Field

Updated in January 2026 to include the latest NSF data for 2024.

Most university R&D science expenditures (74%) are for the life sciences (including biological and biomedical sciences), totaling $66.8B in 2024. A much smaller fraction is for the physical sciences ($7.5B or 8%); geosciences, atmospheric sciences and ocean sciences ($4.4B or 5%); computer and information sciences ($4.0B or 4%); and social sciences ($3.9B or 4%). Even fewer funds support psychology ($1.7B or 2%) and mathematics and statistics ($1.2B or 1%).
The science fields that have grown the most in support over the last decade when adjusted for inflation are computer and information sciences, social sciences, life sciences, and mathematics and statistics. Fields that grew to a lesser extent are physical sciences, psychology, and geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences.
An additional $19.3B in university R&D expenditures supported engineering in 2024. The engineering fields that have grown the most over the last decade are aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering; bioengineering and biomedical engineering; and electrical, electronic, and communications engineering.
The Department of Health and Human Services (mostly the National Institutes of Health) is by far the largest federal funder of R&D at universities and private non-profit research organizations. However, support for fields such as the physical sciences is dominated by other federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense.

47%

The percentage of graduate students in the U.S. who are international

58%

The percentage of postdocs in the U.S. who are international

Graduate Students and Postdocs

There were nearly 600,000 graduate students (including 330,000 master’s students and 269,000 doctoral students) and 66,000 postdocs in science and engineering in 2023. The most represented fields are the computer and information sciences (mostly master’s students) and the biological and biomedical sciences (mostly doctoral students).
University sources, including philanthropy, are increasingly supporting graduate students and postdocs in science and engineering. In 2023, there were 235,000 graduate students and 16,000 postdocs supported by institutional sources. By comparison, the federal government supported 83,000 graduate students and 32,000 postdocs in 2023.
The largest federal supporters of graduate students and postdocs in science and engineering are the National Institutes of Health, which supported 23,000 graduate students and 19,000 postdocs in 2023, and the National Science Foundation, which supported 21,000 graduate students and 4,000 postdocs.
Across all science and engineering fields, 47% of graduate students and 58% of postdocs are international. There are notable differences by field: 80% of graduate students in computer and information sciences are international, compared to 43% in physical sciences and 28% in biological and biomedical sciences. Restrictions leading to a decrease in international scholars will decrease the human capital in the U.S., that is, people entering science and technology fields in the future.

These key findings are particularly important at a time when federal support for scientists and the scientific research enterprise in the U.S. is increasingly threatened. As the data in our report illustrate, science philanthropy cannot replace federal funding at universities and nonprofit research institutions. Rather, federal support for the scientific infrastructure, human capital, and capabilities that have been built over decades must remain in place for philanthropy to have its greatest impact as a nimble, catalytic, and risk-taking complement to government funding.

If enacted, the proposed cuts to federal science agencies would have devastating impacts on the future of U.S. science and technology. Fortunately, the budget appropriations process is beginning to yield some good news, with Congress largely rejecting such deep cuts. We will update this report as new data from NSF become available and as future funding levels become finalized. In the meantime, we invite you to leverage these data and tools to encourage more support for science.

About the Authors

The Science Philanthropy Alliance is composed of 40 philanthropic organizations dedicated to advancing scientific discovery through visionary philanthropy. To learn more about the Alliance, please contact France Córdova (president@sciphil.org) or Kate Lowry (klowry@sciphil.org). For media inquiries, please contact Dustin Sposato (dsposato@sciphil.org).

The University of California San Diego Frontiers in Science and Innovation Policy program analyzes science and innovation policy to reinvigorate the U.S. system of basic research and innovation. To learn more, please contact Robert Conn (rconn@ucsd.edu) or Chris Martin (chris@vela.science).