College Station-based Texas A&M University (TAMU) is back on the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s top 20 research universities list, now ranking 19th based on the school’s growth in annual expenditures in research and development for 2013 as measured in the NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey for 2013, which was released this month.
TAMU’s R&D spending spread over all fields totaled $67.2 billion in FY 2013, according to survey data. That metric represents an 18.25 percent year-over-year increase from fiscal 2012, when Texas A&M spent $693.4 million on R&D, ranking 24th in the NSF’s survey for that fiscal year. Adjusted for inflation, R&D expenditures in U.S. higher education increased by less than half a percent in FY 2013, this figure based on reported totals from 891 degree-granting institutions that had spent at least $150,000 on R&D during the previous fiscal year.
Johns Hopkins University topped the survey with a whopping $2.1 billion in R&D expenditures, somewhat distantly followed by University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ($1.3 billion) in the number two spot, and the University of Washington at Seattle, which spent $1.1 billion on R&D in 2013.
TAMU was the only Texas university among America’s top 20 R&D spending institutions for 2013. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was next-highest, ranking 26th with $718 million in R&D expenditures, while The University of Texas at Austin was 31st at $634 million, then Baylor College of Medicine in Houston at 37th based on $508.7 million R&D spending, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas coming in 45th at $440.6 million. Rice University and The University of Houston ranked at 132nd and 133rd on the list on spending $131 million and $130.8 million, respectively.

The NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey, an annual national census of U.S. institutions that spent at least $150,000 in separately budgeted R&D in the fiscal year under study is successor to the former Survey of Research and Development Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, and is the primary source of information on R&D expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities. The survey collects information on R&D expenditures based on field of research and source of funds, and also tracks data on types of research and expenses and R&D personnel head-counts.
“While the improved ranking is a sign of progress, Texas A&M’s long-term goal remains to become one of the top-10 research universities on the NSFs list,” says Vice President for Research Glen A. Laine. “Our move into the top 20 is a result of the outstanding efforts of our stellar faculty-researchers. We are developing programs to compete even more effectively for the limited funding available at the top levels of research, he said. We expect these programs to generate millions in additional funding dollars in the coming fiscal years.”
Mr. Laine also points out that Chancellor Sharp’s decision to move TAMU’s Health Science Center from the System to the university, and to move the Center for Innovation and Advanced Development Manufacturing from the System to the Health Science Center, have resulted in substantially increased research collaboration and research activities in general.
Sources:
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Texas A&M University
Image Credits:
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Texas A&M University