As noted in previous Engineering Trends reports, the rate of growth in annual research expenditures in engineering colleges from AY1999-00 through AY2003-04 was significantly greater than during the prior decade. A decline in the growth rate occurred in AY 2004-05. The present report focuses on expenditures in AY2005-06 in order to determine whether a new trend is underway.

Research Expenditures in US Engineering Colleges

The graph below shows the accelerated growth of annual research expenditures in the 1980s, the slower growth for most of the 1990s, the subsequent accelerated growth through AY2003-04 and the declining growth rates in AY2004-05 and AY2005-06. Also shown are these expenditures in inflation-adjusted dollars. For most of the 1990s, growth of research expenditures did not occur in terms of constant dollars. The current constant dollar trend now appears to be "no growth".

The new, lower growth rate trend in research expenditures is counter to the trends in the numbers of master's and doctoral degrees and the growth in the number of engineering faculty. From AY2000-01 through AY2005-06, engineering master's and doctoral degrees increased 25.1% and 37.3%, respectively, and the number of engineering faculty increased 13.6%.

The annual fractional increase in engineering research expenditures is shown in the graph below. The annual rate of growth (in both actual and constant dollars) in research expenditures has generally declined for over two decades. Further, the growth may have ceased in terms of constant dollars in AY2005-06.

Research Expenditures in Engineering Disciplines

The two graphs below compare research expenditures for thirteen engineering disciplines in terms of actual dollars and inflation-adjusted dollars. "Computer" is the sum of computer engineering and computer science (within the engineering colleges reporting data) and "materials" is mainly materials science and engineering.

In instances where two disciplines are combined in a single department, the research expenditures of the smaller discipline may be included with those of the larger discipline. For example, a department of civil and environmental engineering may report combined expenditures as civil engineering. Thus, data for larger disciplines may be enhanced and those for smaller disciplines may be underreported. On the semi-logarithm graphs below, this matter would be most noticeable on the data for the smaller disciplines.

Seven of the thirteen engineering disciplines included in this study show no growth or declined in research expenditures (actual dollars) since AY2003-04. Only aerospace, biomedical, chemical, "computer", nuclear and petroleum had research expenditures (actual dollars) in AY2005-06 that exceeded those in AY2003-04.

In terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, only biomedical, chemical and petroleum engineering had expenditures in AY2005-06 that exceeded those in AY2003-04.

From AY1990-91 through AY2005-06, constant dollar research expenditures varied substantially among the thirteen disciplines studied. Over this fifteen-year period, engineering as a whole increased 63%. Only five disciplines exceeded the overall engineering growth - bio- (1209%), biomedical (615%), chemical (77%), "computer" (296%) and civil (68%) engineering. It is noteworthy that "materials" increased only 2% (probably due to materials research funding to other disciplines) and declines were found for nuclear (-3%) and petroleum (-34%) engineering.

Summary

This report describes the trends in research expenditures over the period from AY1980-81 through AY2005-06 for US engineering colleges and thirteen engineering disciplines. Both "actual dollars" and "inflation-adjusted dollars" were considered.

The rapid growth of engineering college research expenditures is subsiding. From AY1998-99 through AY2003-04, the average annual growth rate in actual dollars was 10.6%. From AY2003-04 through AY2005-06, the average annual growth rate was only 3.7%. This significant decline in the growth rate seems to be inconsistent with the continued growth of engineering faculty (3.4% per year) and doctoral degrees (13.4% per year) during this two-year period.

In terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, there was essentially no annual growth (0.6%) in research expenditures at engineering colleges during the period from AY2003-04 through AY2005-06.

For the period from AY1990-91 through AY2005-06, only five engineering disciplines (bio-, biomedical, chemical, "computer" (science plus engineering) and civil) had inflation-adjusted research expenditure growth greater than that of engineering as a whole (63.9%). For the period from AY2003-04 through AY2005-06, only six of the thirteen disciplines had increases in research expenditures in actual dollars. In terms of inflation-adjusted dollars during the same two-year period, only three disciplines experienced research expenditure growth (biomedical, chemical and petroleum engineering).

Acknowledgments

The data used in this study originated from the annual surveys of the American Society for Engineering Education. Engineering Trends acknowledges the efforts of this organization in providing credible data and expresses its gratitude for their services to the engineering profession. Persons seeking further information about their surveys and the availability of survey data should visit the ASEE Web site (www.asee.org).

Footnote

Engineering Trends data are compiled mainly from information submitted by universities to the annual surveys of EWC and ASEE. On the very rare occasions where errors in data appear, Engineering Trends corrects the error, if possible, or deletes the data if the error is large enough to alter significantly the trend of the university or the US total.