Companies in this industry conduct research or apply research findings to develop new products or processes in a variety of fields, including life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities. Global spending on research & development, a demand driver for scientific research services, is about $1.9 trillion. Global R&D investment has been growing steadily over the last several years. The US scientific research and development services industry includes about 18,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $130 billion!