All research dollars reported for your institution should be funds that are separately budgeted for research purposes. Do not include funds not specifically budgeted for research. If your institution does not track underrecovery of indirect costs, use the underrecovery formula included in the questionnaire instructions. Do not forget to include and distribute these funds by detailed field in Survey Item 2. Congress and Federal and State government planners use the data for science policy analysis, national and international studies, legislative hearing reports, budget formulation sessions, and other measurements of the adequacy of the Nation's research base.
Academic institutions use the information for policy analysis, publicity, and other purposes.
Industrial firms often request data to prepare for on-campus recruiting. The data often appear in higher education studies and publications. NSF also produces a smaller Selected Data report to disseminate the most recent data as soon as they are released.