How much money could Trump take from science in WA?

A quick glance around Lake Union and you can tell there’s a lot of science happening in our state. With the Trump administration threatening cuts to research funding, we examined how much money this could mean for Washington state.

First of all, it’s difficult to lasso all the federal dollars going to science. So we zeroed in on two big agencies to get an overview: the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, looking at their reports for the 2016 fiscal year.

Washington brings in a lot of federal dollars from these agencies – ranking ninth of all states and Washington, D.C.

Nearly 90 percent of the state's grants from these agencies is from NIH, which gave about $953 million, compared with the NSF's $141 million.

Of the top states bringing in over a billion dollars in grants, Pennsylvania, Texas and North Carolina went to Donald Trump in the election.

Washington state brought in the fifth most per resident of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Based on Census estimates, Washington state received about $150.04 per resident in 2016. That's pretty good considering that Nevada, at the bottom of the list, brought in a tenth of that: $15.96 per resident. However, Washington, D.C., dwarfed them all with $689.23 per resident.

In total, 107 Washington state institutions received money from either the NSF or NIH in 2016. Only nine received grants from both agencies, mostly universities.

The University of Washington is by far the biggest player, bringing in 50 percent of Washington’s grants from the NSF and NIH.