The FedInvent™ Portfolio
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grants By NSF Office — 2005 through 2023
NSF is cited as a funding source on 13% of all taxpayer-funded patents granted from 2005-2023.
This page was updated on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 11:28 AM EDT
About This Page:
- Annual Summary of Taxpayer Funded Patents with NSF Support
- NSF Grants On US Patents Organized the NSF Office Issuing The Grant
- About The Tables — Information about how the tables were constructed and the data.
Annual Summary of Taxpayer Funded Patents with NSF Support:
| YEAR | TAXPAYER-FUNDED PATENTS | PATENT WITH NSF SUPPORT | NSF GRANTS CITED | UNIQUE GRANTS CITED |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 3413 | 308 | 390 | 294 |
| 2006 | 4203 | 378 | 471 | 375 |
| 2007 | 3950 | 413 | 502 | 397 |
| 2008 | 3841 | 403 | 492 | 426 |
| 2009 | 4243 | 449 | 560 | 485 |
| 2010 | 5738 | 649 | 810 | 657 |
| 2011 | 5801 | 672 | 864 | 694 |
| 2012 | 6627 | 753 | 951 | 769 |
| 2013 | 7173 | 863 | 1119 | 895 |
| 2014 | 7529 | 915 | 1202 | 981 |
| 2015 | 7390 | 943 | 1217 | 1009 |
| 2016 | 7596 | 1037 | 1316 | 1086 |
| 2017 | 7974 | 1111 | 1455 | 1206 |
| 2018 | 7720 | 1074 | 1419 | 1208 |
| 2019 | 8796 | 1266 | 1616 | 1348 |
| 2020 | 8485 | 1244 | 1582 | 1339 |
| 2021 | 7728 | 1171 | 1501 | 1269 |
| 2022 | 7056 | 1133 | 1408 | 1154 |
| 2023 | 6978 | 1116 | 1419 | 1182 |
| TOTAL | 122,241 | 15,898 | 20,297 | 16,774 |
Count of NSF Grants Cited Organized by NSF Office:
| NSF Organization | GRANTS CITED | UNIQUE GRANTS |
|---|---|---|
| Computer and Network Systems (CNS) | 1545 | 975 |
| Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) | 1208 | 711 |
| Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) | 21 | N/A |
| Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) | 3 | N/A |
| Directorate of Geosciences (GEO) | 1 | 1 |
| Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) | 67 | 31 |
| Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) | 93 | 50 |
| Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) | 43 | 29 |
| Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) | 369 | 197 |
| Division of Cellular Biosciences (DCB) | 1 | 1 |
| Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) | 1829 | 1061 |
| Division of Chemistry (CHE) | 1911 | 1041 |
| Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) | 1320 | 770 |
| Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) | 42 | 21 |
| Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) | 1646 | 960 |
| Division of Emerging Frontiers (EF) | 30 | 15 |
| Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) | 1094 | 235 |
| Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) | 31 | 20 |
| Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (ESS) | 2 | 2 |
| Division of Experimental and Integrative Activities (EIA) | 27 | 16 |
| Division of Graduate Education (DGE) | 474 | 216 |
| Division of Human Resource Development (HRD) | 53 | 19 |
| Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) | 327 | 208 |
| Division of Materials Research (DMR) | 2967 | 1202 |
| Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) | 123 | 94 |
| Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) | 511 | 292 |
| Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) | 59 | 48 |
| Division of Physics (PHY) | 268 | 143 |
| Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) | 16 | 14 |
| Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES) | 16 | 14 |
| Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) | 33 | 20 |
| Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) | 1017 | 560 |
| Information Technology Research (ITR) | 2 | 1 |
| Innovation and Technology Ecosystems (ITE) | 4 | 1 |
| Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) — Now RISE —** | 4 | 1 |
| National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) | 2 | 2 |
| National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) — ** | 2 | 2 |
| National Science Foundation (NSF) — No Organization Cited ** | 787 | N/A |
| Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) | 86 | 55 |
| Office of Emerging Frontiers and Multidisciplinary Activities (EFMA) | 158 | 79 |
| Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR) | 119 | 47 |
| Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) | 87 | 38 |
| Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) | 65 | 43 |
| Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) | 1 | 1 |
| Office of Polar Programs (OPP) | 22 | 12 |
| SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) | 13 | 13 |
| SBIR/STTR No Funding Organization Cited — ** | 18 | N/A |
| Translational Impacts (TI) | 1777 | 963 |
| TOTAL | 20,297 | 10,224 |
About These Tables and FedInvent's Data
Our Portfolio — The FedInvent Team has the most comprehensive portfolio of taxpayer-funded patents and NSF-funded patents with verified grant information.
Every Patent and Every Grant — FedInvent researched every patent and every grant that cited NSF as a funding source.
Some Substandard Data Remains — The accuracy of the government interest statements for some NSF-funded inventions required by Bayh-Dole is substandard. The FedInvent team found plenty of junk among the solid data — inventors citing garbage numbers, inventors citing funding from NSF but providing grants from the National Institutes of Health, six digit and eight digit grant numbers that we couldn't track back to a real NSF grant, and statements like, this patent was funded by an NSF fellowship grant without information about the grant. We continue to work our way through these patents to try to clean up the mess where possible.
Count of Patents and Grants — The first table shows the number of grants cited on US patents that cite NSF support from 2005 through 2023.
Grants By NSF Office — The second list is organized by the Directorate, Division or Office that awarded the grant.
The Count — FedInvent included the total count of NSF grants and the count of unique NSF grants that appear on these NSF-funded patents.
USPTO and NSF Data — The FedInvent team confirmed the grant numbers that are definitively assigned to NSF and one of its offices using NSF grant data and USPTO government interest statements.
NSF Grant Data — Many of the organizations inventors cite in the government interest statements are NOT the organization that appears in the NSF grant data. FedInvent uses the organization in the NSF dataset.
Patents with No Grant Numbers — The NSF entry is used for grants where the inventor cited NSF funding but did not provide a grant number that would enable the grants to be definitively linked to an NSF office.
NOTES ON THE ** ENTRIES ON THE TABLES:
- The entry on the table marked SBIR/STTR — No Funding Organization Cited is used to report on patents where the inventor cited funding from an SBIR or STTR but did not provide NSF grant numbers.
- From 2005-2023 inventors received patents funded by either and SBIR or STTR that was linked to a specific NSF funding office. Inventors cited 1558 SBIR/STTRgrant numbers. Of those, 803 were unique grants funded by an SBIR or STTR.
- The table cites two grants from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. The MagLab is cited as the source of funding 31 times but these citations do no include an NSF grant number. One of the MagLab citations in a government interest statements includes an internal FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY contract number and NOT an NSF grant number.
- Inventors cited NSF grants for equipment and new instrumentation 259 times citing 172 unique grant numbers. These grant numbers appeared on 239 patents.
- The Division of Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) has been renamed the Division of Resarch, Innovation, Synergies, and Education (RISE).