In 2017, the United States government invested US$118.3 billion in research and development (R&D), an increase of 2.3% over 2016, when the sector received US$115 billion. The research infrastructure budget grew by 23.6%, and the technological development budget increased by 7.2%, according to a report by the National Science Foundation, the country’s leading research support agency. There was no significant change to the amount of spending on basic and applied research, both classified under the research heading. The former increased by 0.1%, at around US$32 billion for the year. The latter fell by 0.8%, from US$34.4 billion in 2016 to US$34.1 billion in 2017. The funds were allocated to universities, nongovernmental organizations, and industry. Investments in the latter fell from US$5.9 billion in 2016 to US$5.5 billion in 2017. Most of the money (48%) went to the life sciences, nearly US$32 billion in 2017.
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