New England universities performed more than $4 billion worth of research and development in 2009, but the region’s share of total R&D performed by all U.S. universities remained at 7.3%, down from more than 10% in the 1980s.
The region’s university research labs have been world-famous for ideas that breed companies and whole industries in fields ranging from biotechnology to photonics.
New England universities capture a disproportionate share of research dollars in fields such as environmental sciences. But the region has been overly reliant on federal research funds and underfunded by the New England states.
Defense research has also been key in New England, thanks in part to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), whose mission was to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military by sponsoring “revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use.” DARPA helped scientists create the Internet among other innovations. The Obama administration recently proposed similar investment in an “Advanced Research Projects Agency-Education” to direct efforts to solve specific problems.
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