Office of Medical Products and Tobacco

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a sub-agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, funds scientific research and development activities through grants, with particular emphasis on food safety, drug development, medical device evaluation, and public health innovation. The FDA distributes grant funding to academic institutions, medical research centers, and specialized research organizations across the United States.

The FDA has obligated $299.4 million in federal grant funding across 161 awards since 2008, with recent activity averaging 12 awards per year over the last five years—5 awards in 2020, 11 in 2021, 16 in 2022, 17 in 2023, and 11 in 2024, with the most recent award dated in September 2024. Grant funding is heavily concentrated in Project Grants, which represent 86 percent of awards, with the remainder structured as Cooperative Agreements at 14 percent.

Grant recipients are fragmented across the portfolio. Over the last five years, the top five recipients by award count—The General Hospital Corporation, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, and Blackrock Microsystems, Inc.—account for 32 percent of recent awards. By federal dollars obligated, the same group plus the Regents of the University of Minnesota capture only 11 percent of recent funding, indicating that funding is spread broadly across 90 distinct recipients. Among recent major recipients, The General Hospital Corporation and The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania each received $7.4 million across three awards, while the Regents of the University of Minnesota received $8.1 million across two awards.

No recent contract awards or contract opportunities are recorded against the FDA or its descendant offices. No recent federal grant opportunities are present in the available source data, limiting current visibility into open solicitations or upcoming funding cycles.