Virginia ranks 14th but has scarcely moved over the past decade in the National Science Foundation’s research and development expenditures, the latest of which have been released covering FY2015.
Total R&D expenditures in Virginia grew by 40 percent from 2006 to 2015, just above the national growth rate of 38 percent. However, other states such as North Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland spend more on R&D and have grown faster than Virginia since 2006.
All the expenditures at Virginia public institutions total about $1.4 billion, just over the amount spent at the University of Michigan. The four Virginia institutions with the highest research classification from Carnegie (which includes Mason) spent $1.2 billion on R&D in FY2015, an amount just greater than at the University of Washington.
Virginia has been keeping pace but could fall behind as other states grow their R&D expenditures at a faster rate. The table below lists the expenditures on R&D, ranked across all institutions as well as the Carnegie classification for the top five, and all public Virginia institutions.
Johns Hopkins is again at the top of the ranking with over $2 billion in expenditures, which include the activity of the Applied Physics Laboratory. California leads the nation in total R&D expenditures for all institutions in the state with nearly $8.7 billion. George Mason, which joined the “highest research” tier in the Carnegie classification this year, ranked 142, behind the other Virginia institutions in the top category, all of which have medical schools.
| Rank | University | FY2015 R&D expenditure | Carnegie classification |
| 1 | Johns Hopkins University | $2,305,679,000 | Highest research |
| 2 | University of Michigan | $1,369,278,000 | Highest research |
| 3 | University of Washington | $1,180,563,000 | Highest research |
| 4 | UC San Francisco | $1,126,620,000 | Medical school |
| 5 | UC San Diego | $1,101,466,000 | Highest research |
| Virginia Institutions | |||
| 44 | Virginia Tech | $504,282,000 | Highest research |
| 62 | University of Virginia | $373,218,000 | Highest research |
| 97 | Virginia Commonwealth University | $218,925,000 | Highest research |
| 142 | George Mason University | $106,410,000 | Highest research |
| 169 | Old Dominion University | $65,092,000 | Higher research |
| 173 | College of William & Mary | $61,554,000 | Higher research |
| 207 | Eastern Virginia Medical School | $42,296,000 | Medical school |
| 348 | Virginia State University | $7,808,000 | Masters: Medium |
| 385 | Norfolk State University | $5,348,000 | Masters: Medium |
| 428 | James Madison University | $3,712,000 | Masters: Large |
| 602 | Christopher Newport University | $1,208,000 | Masters: Small |
| 688 | University of Mary Washington | $690,000 | Masters: Large |
| 745 | Radford University | $490,000 | Masters: Large |
| 821 | Virginia Military Institute | $307,000 | Arts & Sciences |