Review edits, 31 October 2026
These notes record the basis for the figures and statements changed after the owner's review of the plan on 31 October 2026. build_figures.py and edit_text.py in this folder make every change and check each value against its recorded source.
Figure 1
Figure 1 compares each of the seven growth areas on two measures:
- its share of the seven areas' audited 2021–2025 Arkansas publications (5,744 articles and reviews, counted by area in the 31 October author recount);
- its share of the 2024 company-funded business R&D that NCSES BERD Table 28-A reports for the industries mapped to that area ($563 million of Arkansas's $633 million).
An area is in step when the two shares are within a factor of 1.5 of each other. It is research ahead when its publication share is higher, and industry ahead when its R&D share is higher.
| Growth area | Publications (share) | Company R&D (share) | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food & nutrition | 861 (15.0%) | $73M (13.0%) | In step |
| Power electronics | 403 (7.0%) | $56M (9.9%) | In step |
| Population health | 2,211 (38.5%) | $24M (4.3%) | Research ahead |
| Crops & water | 1,365 (23.8%) | $10M (1.8%) | Research ahead |
| Supply chain & IT | 375 (6.5%) | $180M (32.0%) | Industry ahead |
| Materials | 451 (7.9%) | $135M (24.0%) | Industry ahead |
| Freight | 78 (1.4%) | $85M (15.1%) | Industry ahead |
BERD files each company's R&D under its main industry. Precision-agriculture R&D done by software, equipment or food companies is therefore counted in those industries, and the crops figure covers only farm implements (NAICS 33311) and agricultural chemicals (NAICS 3253). The information figure includes $73 million of data hosting. These mappings are approximate, and the fit labels describe the direction of the gap, not its exact size.
Patents
The 4,653 US utility patents granted in 2015–2025 with an Arkansas inventor include 4,033 that name an organization as assignee. The largest source assignee ID, Walmart Apollo, LLC, appears on 1,142 of them (28.3%). In equal five-year windows, Arkansas-inventor grants rose from 2,045 (2015–2019) to 2,201 (2020–2024), +7.6%. Excluding grants that name that one assignee ID, they fell from 1,634 to 1,543, −5.6%.
Source assignee IDs can split an organization, and corporate families are not merged, so this is a sensitivity test, not a corporate-family total.
Academic R&D growth
NCSES estimated UAMS's FY2024 HERD total rather than receiving a reported figure. The estimate is 46.1% of the state total. Excluding UAMS from both years, Arkansas's 2019–2024 academic R&D growth is 23.7%, against 34% with the estimate included. A reported UAMS figure can first appear in the FY2025 HERD release, which the NCSES calendar (checked 27 October 2026) schedules for 24 November 2026, provided UAMS responds to that survey.
Cycle
The plan is fully revised every two years, by 30 April 2030 and 30 April 2032, in place of the earlier mid-term refresh in 2031 and full revision by 30 April 2032. The annual scorecard is unchanged.