Office of Sponsored Programs

Expenditures and Award Volume

Current Fiscal Year Award Volume and Award Expenditure reports can be found in the OSP SharePoint. These expenditure reports reflect data from the Banner Report database, which is updated nightly.

The Difference Between Expenditures and Award Volume

Sponsored activities at institutions of higher education (IHEs) involve external funding for organized research, instruction, and other initiatives such as outreach, collectively referred to as "research." Award mechanisms include grants, contracts, MOU’s and cooperative agreements, all of which are grouped under the term grants."

Expenditure totals accurately reflect the sponsored dollars received by the institution. Most sponsored activities operate on a cost-reimbursable basis, meaning that payment is received after the institution requests reimbursement for expenses from the sponsor. Expenditure totals are nationally recognized as a reliable and consistent measure of institutional sponsored program activity and are often used for comparison purposes among peer institutions.

In contrast, award volume refers to the amount of budget authority specified in an award document, serving as an indicator of proposal success and a leading indicator of future expenditures. For example, if an award authorizes $5 million for five years, the entire $5 million is counted in the first year. If the award specifies $1 million per year for five years, the award volume report will reflect $1 million each year. However, because individual IHEs may report award volume differently, these totals are not typically reliable for comparison purposes.

The National Science Foundation Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, an annual census of institutions and the primary source of information on R&D expenditures that are accounted for separately by U.S. colleges and universities. The HERD survey differs slightly from an institution’s grant and contract expenditures administered through an office of sponsored programs as it allows the inclusion of all R&D expenditures by field and source of funds, such as those from the federal government, state and local government, business, nonprofit (including UM Foundation funds), and institutional (cost match, unrecovered F&A, and other activities).

Summary Chart

Summary chart of OSP expenditures and award volume over the years

FY	Proposal Count	Award Volume	Expenditures	HERD Survey Expenditures
2025	564	170,193,298	135,099,965	149,900,000
2024	720	139,475,059	138,098,002	143,810,000
2023	698	147,000,000	122,831,779	133,957,653
2022	684	131,120,181	108,890,522	125,550,766
2021	575	138,511,329	98,182,610	121,571,000
2020	628	100,771,958	89,408,685	110,217,925
2019	621	92,014,773	84,781,710	104,665,000
2018	624	98,718,667	86,456,120	90,563,000
2017	724	93,388,661	88,110,291	85,044,000
2016	694	86,841,868	78,536,903	70,059,000
2015	629	82,964,694	64,572,795	60,485,000
2014	637	64,421,743	58,272,583	55,032,000
2013	598	55,867,564	60,189,000	59,306,532
2012	656	60,173,049	61,543,835	59,313,000
2011	629	63,626,573	63,857,146	60,159,000
2010	726	67,643,989	66,961,101	63,540,000
2009	763	71,094,279	67,117,678	59,791,000
2008	862	64,445,701	62,405,729	58,557,000
2007	796	58,153,226	62,020,361	56,119,000
2006	775	62,730,341	60,070,832	53,333,000
2005	782	62,313,457	61,564,240
2004	763	65,731,434	55,639,149
2003	742	60,923,446	49,071,601
2002	691	50,227,277	42,361,122
2001	665	48,168,116	37,608,733
2000	629	38,227,455	32,347,119
1999	625	39,052,456	26,758,832
1998	611	31,405,857	23,991,930
1997	607	26,564,334	22,511,981
1996	588	26,036,903	21,958,190
1995	555	23,583,201	20,532,130
1994	568	20,173,806	17,257,772
1993	461	17,250,851	14,176,753
1992	423	14,242,665	11,238,761
1991	330	10,040,794	8,012,175
1990	344	7,666,512	7,325,956
1989		8,744,853
1988		6,666,423
1987		6,207,597
1986		5,897,453
1985		4,812,099
1984		5,094,258
1983		4,454,722
1982		4,898,703
1981		5,717,064
1980		4,509,513
1979		5,227,380
1978		4,633,276
1977		4,243,305