Federally Funded R&D Centers: Use of Contract Fee by The Aerospace Corporation

This report describes: funding and staff size of the Federally Funded R&D Centers (FFRDC); extent of subcontracted FFRDC work; structure of the parent organizations; missions, core competencies, and capabilities of the FFRDC's sponsors' criteria for defining core work; and sponsors' oversight mechanisms and responsibilities. Overall funding for DoD's FFRDC's increased by about 23%, from almost $1.4 billion in FY 1985 to a peak of approximately $1.7 billion in FY 1990. Since FY 1990, funding for DoD's FFRDC's has decreased by almost 26% to about $1.3 billion in FY 1995.