Wider group of universities and institutions conducting federally supported nutrition research

USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are the lead Federal agencies that conduct and fund human nutrition research. From 1985 to 2009, funding shifted from research at Federal nutrition laboratories and land-grant universities toward competitive research grants for non-Federal researchers, as DHHS’s share of total nutrition research funding grew from 79 to 93 percent. Over this period, the share of federally funded nutrition research projects conducted by government researchers fell from 12 to 6 percent and the share conducted by land-grant universities declined from 34 to 22 percent. In 2009, non-land-grant universities accounted for 41 percent of Federal nutrition research projects and other institutions (medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions) had a 29-percent share—up from 30 percent and 22 percent, respectively, in 1985. This chart appears in “Federal Support for Nutrition Research Trends Upward as USDA Share Declines” in the June 2015 issue of ERS’s Amber Waves magazine.