Higher Education Research and Development Survey (HERD) Public Use Data Files

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Higher Education Research and Development Survey 11/05/2025 01:58:PM

Project Citation: 

National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Higher Education Research and Development Survey (HERD) Public Use Data Files. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-11-05. https://doi.org/10.3886/E239710V1

Project Description

Project Title:  View help for Project Title Higher Education Research and Development Survey (HERD) Public Use Data Files
Summary:  View help for Summary The HERD Survey is an annual census of U.S. colleges and universities that expended at least $150,000 in separately accounted-for R&D in the fiscal year. The survey collects information on R&D expenditures by field of research and source of funds and also gathers information on types of research, expenses, and headcounts of R&D personnel.

Institution-level microdata from the Higher Education Research and Development Survey are provided. The files include all publicly releasable data. Data from the earlier version of the survey, the Survey of R&D Expenditures at Universities and Colleges, are available for the survey years 1972 through 2009. Beginning in FY 2012, a shorter version of the questionnaire was administered to all institutions reporting under $1 million in R&D expenditures in the previous year. The data for this population of institutions are included in the files named "2012 (short)", "2013 (short)", etc.

The file organization makes each year's institution data available in a single record. The files also allow researchers to link to other institutional data sources. The microdata are organized by year and are available in SAS and CSV formats. A guide to use is available as a PDF in the top level folder.

Correction(s) Date Jul 25, 2019: Data in the SAS, SPSS, and CSV formats of the 2010–16 Higher Education Research and Development Survey public use files were incorrect between 20 November 2018 and 25 July 2019. During this time, only the Excel format contained the latest data revisions. All formats for these years are now correct.
Original Distribution URL:  View help for Original Distribution URL https://ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data/microdata/higher-education-research-development

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms universities; research administration; research; research budget
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1972 – 2023
Universe:  View help for Universe U.S. colleges and universities that expended at least $150,000 in separately accounted-for R&D in the fiscal year.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) survey data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Downloaded 2025-11-05


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