Research Expenditures

Introduction to ASEE Research Expenditures

These rules were crafted in the mid-2000s and have been modified from time to time by our governing bodies.  These rules were written with guidance from the Engineering Dean’s Council Data Committee. As of 2023, modifications to these rules require discussion and approval from the ASEE Engineering Deans Council Data Committee as well as input from the ASEE Data Collections National Advisory Board.  A disclaimer: Guidance provided by my office, including the discussion and examples below, do not override the written rules or the oversight function of the EDC Data Committee or ASEE Board of Directors.  This page will be updated as questions come in.

The Official Rules

Research Guidelines
The institution’s graduate engineering degree-granting department(s) / engineering-related research centers or laboratories appear in the first column. If the department(s) / research centers or laboratories do not appear as expected, return to the ‘College of Engineering Profile’ section, then the ‘Departments’ / ‘Research Centers’ screen to revise or add the entry.

For each department / center or laboratory, list the engineering-related research expenditures for that department / center or laboratory. Expenditures should be broken down into seven broad source categories (federal/national government; state government; foreign government; industry; private, non-profit organizations; individuals; local government). For each of the seven funding sources, report engineering-related research expenditures for the 2023 fiscal year.

Include all expenditures associated with grants and contracts specifically budgeted for externally sponsored research and associated programs and expenditures associated with all gifts auditably used for research.  Include expended funds provided by the following external sources:

  1. Federal Government
  2. State Government
  3. Foreign Government
  4. Industry
  5. Non-Profit Organizations (e.g. foundations)
  6. Individuals
  7. Local Government

The expenditures reported should be only those funds provided by organizations, agencies, and individuals external to the institution.

Do not include any research that is funded from an endowment or a general fund.

Cost sharing/matching funds should be included only if provided from sources external to the institution.

Only State government funds that were obtained competitively or as matching funds associated with other externally funded programs should be included.

State funds that are part of the normal operating budget should not be included regardless of purpose.

For all joint or contracted projects or sub-projects, only the portion of the center research performed by faculty, staff, and students of the affiliated engineering school should be credited to that school.

Expenditures for capital costs of research laboratory building construction should not be included.

Expenditures for research laboratory renovations should not be included unless the renovation funds expended came from grants and contracts expressly intended for the direct support of engineering research.

Any portion of academic year and/or summer salary for any researcher that is not derived from external research grants or contracts should not be counted.

Report total number of individual grants, not the total dollar amount of the expenditures. Report actual expenditures (as opposed to authorization amounts or awards) in U.S. dollars.

Time frame for expenditures: Report expenditures for your 2023 fiscal year (the fiscal year that ended in 2023).

Numbers and rounding: Round figures to the nearest thousand dollars. Do not report cents. For example, for $345,678.99, report $346,000.

Negative research expenditures will be removed from an institutions submission. Negative expenditures are due to normal reconciliation processes.

Empty fields: If you do not have expenditures for a category, leave the field empty; do not put N/A or other text.

ASEE Engineering Research Expenditures: Dos and Don’ts (guidance approved in 2012 by ASEE Engineering Deans Council)

Do not count. . . .

. . . research expenditures for a lab/center solely because a faculty member is the lab/center director. Only externally-funded research that is expended directly by personnel and their work for the research mission of the school of engineering should be included.

. . . purchased equipment that enabled you to receive new awards. Only equipment that was purchased explicitly as part of and in support of a contract can be counted.

. . . required or not required cost share that the university or its affiliated foundation puts toward a project. This is considered internal funding whether it is via the university directly or one of its affiliates (e.g. a foundation).

. . . in kind gifts. These are not expended funds.

. . . waived indirect costs. These are not expended funds.

. . . research expenditures that are subcontracted to a party outside of your engineering college. Only include the research done by direct personnel of your engineering college. In the case of joint appointments, research expenditures are pro-rated in proportion to the effort in the school of engineering.

. . . discretionary spending that is appropriated from the dean‘s office. Discretionary spending is not considered to be externally-funded, regardless of the original source.

. . . any research that is funded from an endowment or a general fund. These sources are considered to be internal and therefore, should not be included, regardless of the original source. This includes general state appropriations, a percentage of which is presumed to be for the support of research.

. . . expenditures for marketing existing research results or either applying for or developing new research proposals. This is not considered to be research.

Do count . . .

. . . externally-funded expenditures associated both fundamental and applied research.

Research Centers

Research centers listed as “WITHIN an engineering department” on the Research Centers page of the College of Engineering Profile, will not have their expenditures added to the school’s total research expenditures. Such expenditures can be included in the department total, while still being listed for the appropriate center. This allows users to list the expenditures in two areas without double-counting.

What is a research unit or research center?

ASEE has adopted the definition of a research unit developed by Dr. Robert S. Friedman and Dr. Renee C. Friedman at Pennsylvania State University. In a report on organized research units, they use the following criteria to define a research unit. A research unit should:

  1. Receive budgetary support from internal and/or external sources independent of department allocation;
  2. Occupy temporary or permanently assigned space with access to university-operated physical facilities and support services;
  3. Be directed by an administrator drawn from faculty or equivalent ranks;
  4. Participate in the university’s broad-gauged educational functions, but not be degree-granting;
  5. Be more than a facilitator of research (such as a computer center or nuclear reactor), a diagnostic testing and/or evaluation unit servicing internal or external clients, or an institutional research and/or co-ordinating office.

Discipline Category Key (letter code)

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Agricultural Engineering
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Civil/Environmental Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Computer Science (inside engineering)
  • Computer Science (outside engineering)
  • Electrical/Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering (General)
  • Engineering Management
  • Engr. Science and Engr. Physics
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
  • Mining Engineering
  • Nuclear Engineering
  • Other Engineering Disciplines
  • Petroleum Engineering

Research Center or Laboratory Classification

  1. Research center WITHIN the university system.
  2. Research center WITHIN the college of engineering.
  3. Research center WITHIN an engineering department.
  4. Research center OUTSIDE the university.

Research centers listed as “WITHIN an engineering department” on the Research Centers page of the College of Engineering Profile, will not have their expenditures added to the school’s total research expenditures. Such expenditures can be included in the department total, while still being listed for the appropriate center. This allows users to list the expenditures in two areas without double-counting.

Questions from institutions (past cycles and current)

For questions that are complicated, I tend to have a legalistic reading of the rules, so that usually drives my initial response. For complicated questions, my past practice has been to talk to ASEE HQ staff and the chair of the Engineering Deans’ Council data committee.  I generally prefer to put initial responses in writing, and I invite follow-up discussion by phone or email.

Disclaimers:  (1) Guidance provided by my office, including the discussion and examples online, do not override the written rules or the oversight function of the EDC data committees.  (2) It is our practice to direct questions that one institution has with specific issues with research expenditures from prior years for another institution to the institution that submitted the data. While every attempt is made to flag issues with the data, institutions remain fully responsible for the data they submit and are responsible for ensuring adequate internal review before submission of data to the ASEE.

An institution is discussing two different accounting structures for F & A from external grants and want to know if they would lead to different results reported to us:

  1. F&A is sent to a general revenue account, and used to support all research activities on campus, including but not limited to, electricity, general support, maintenance, student fellowships, seed funds… basically everything research related. If the total allowable research expenditures [as defined by the rules] exceeds the total F&A income, then the total F&A can be counted.
  2. F&A is sent directly to particular activities, and ‘tagged’ as F&A in order to demonstrate to research how F&A supports the research mission. Imagine some F&A is sent directly to Research Centers and Colleges [without the ‘mixing effect’]. In this case, one might need to exclude the expenditures that are not allowable, e.g. Center director salaries and college discretionary funds.  The F&A has not changed, and the expenditures have not changed, but certain research expenditures are coming from internal sources, rather than external; and a certain fraction of the F&A are not ‘allowable’ expenditures.

ASEE IR&A Response: Under my reading of the instructions, these could potentially lead to different amounts being reported to us since in scenario (2) funds are being expended on unallowable expenditures even though the total research expenditures don’t decrease. [i.e. auditably, F & A are no longer being spent directly on research].

  1. Our college is presently executing several large NSF S-STEM grants that support scholarship funding for undergraduate students interested in energy engineering and leadership.  While these funds are certainly external, our campus categorizes the related expenditures as “Instruction” rather than “Research” and therefore we have previously NOT counted such expenditures.  For ASEE reporting purposes, should we include these expenditures as “Externally-funded Research Expenditures”?
  2. Our college routinely conducts some amount of externally-funded applied research activities (e.g., sample testing) through special accounts that charge a reduced overhead rate.  While these funds are certainly external, our campus categorizes the related expenditures as “Public Service” rather than “Research” and therefore we have previously NOT counted such expenditures.  For ASEE reporting purposes, should we include these expenditures as “Externally-funded Research Expenditures”?
  3. Our college annually receives corporate and foundation support for senior design projects and registered student groups (e.g., ASCE Concrete Canoe) and such activities could be seen as undergraduate research experiences.  While these funds are certainly external to our campus we have previously NOT counted such expenditures.  For ASEE reporting purposes, should we include these expenditures as “Externally-funded Research Expenditures”?

ASEE IR&A Response:  I have attached our instructions for research expenditures to this email. What I think is the relevant part to your questions is this portion: Include all expenditures associated with grants and contracts specifically budgeted for externally sponsored research and associated programs and expenditures associated with all gifts auditably used for research.  Include expended funds provided by the following external sources.

For (1) and (2), my reading of this instruction implies that if your institution classifies these expenditures as “instruction” or “service” you cannot reclassify it for purposes of our survey to “research”.   I’m a little less certain on (3) – it depends how your institution refers to it.  Your submitted research expenditures to USNWR should align with what you report to us.  In follow up discussion: The institution indicated that they disagreed with the response to (1) and (3).

  1.  Our institution owns a company in Singapore. The university is the legal financial control (submits US tax returns based on this). Our engineering faculty constitute the leadership of the company. Can we include research expenditures generated by this unit in our numbers?

ASEE IR&A Response: Yes, as long as the amount reported is in US dollars and reflects a conversion rate that is used consistently (see IRS Instructions: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/yearly-average-currency-exchange-rates)

Reference Materials

NSF-HERD 2018 Survey Instrument: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyherd/surveys/srvyherd_2018.pdf

NRC Report on Measuring Research and Development Expenditures in the US Economy (2005) Free with registration: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11111/measuring-research-and-development-expenditures-in-the-us-economy

The NRC reports (specifically, Chapter 6 and 7) provide some historical context that underlies the philosophy of the ASEE rules on research expenditures. Chapter 6 focuses on research expenditures in academia while chapter 7 maps out some of the discrepancies between different sources of data at the time.