According to the National Science Foundation, UVA spent $614million on research and development in 2019, ranking it 44th in the nation and first in Virginia. Built in 1996, North Fork (formerly the UVA Research Park) is an extensive 3.7-million square foot, 562 acre research park nine miles north of UVA's North Grounds. It houses the UVA Applied Research Institute as well as many private R&D efforts by such firms as Battelle, The MITRE Corporation, Signature Science, and CACI.