The U.S. R&D system consists of the activities of a diverse group of R&D performers and sources of funding. Included here are private businesses, the federal government, nonfederal governments, higher education institutions, and other nonprofit organizations. The organizations that perform R&D often receive significant levels of outside funding, and organizations that fund R&D may also themselves be performers.
U.S. R&D Expenditures
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2010-2015
- Year-over-year increases in U.S. total R&D expenditures averaged $17.6 billion.
- Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR): 4.0%.
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2016-2020
Notable increases in subsequent years.
- 2017-2018: Increase of $50.6 billion.
- 2018-2019: Increase of $61.8 billion.
- 2019-2020: Increase of $50.8 billion.
- Average annual growth rate for 2015-2020: 7.7%.
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2021
- Estimated increase for business R&D: $69.2 billion.
- Estimated increase for total R&D performance: $74.9 billion.
There are a number of focus areas that do not get the attention that they should or could based on how traditional venture funding models work. The venture capital model that is adopted by most firms operate on methodology that you need to produce a certain amount of return to consider an opportunity valuable; they do not consider the impact that the opportunity could have as they are focused on returns. An example is how some cause-based disease funding is focused solely on a cure, but overlooks areas like therapeutics that can help improve the quality of life.
They lack the advantage of focus, ingenuity, and immediacy that only limited resources and desperation can give. The sense of urgency in the nonprofit-industry business model focuses efforts on translational research and bringing cures to market. Our goa since we are not held to the constraints of traditional funding, is to focus on impact and how to improve outcomes.