Alabama A & M University

Alabama A & M University, a historically Black 1890 land-grant institution in Huntsville, Alabama, is a recipient of federal research and educational grants administered through its Business Office Division. The university competes as a direct recipient (prime grantee) across all federal funding mechanisms, with no federal contracts in its footprint—only grants and cooperative agreements. As an HBCU, Alabama A & M qualifies as a minority institution and is ineligible for set-asides, competing full-and-open across NSF, USDA, Department of Defense, and other federal grant programs.

Alabama A & M's capability portfolio centers on agricultural research, STEM education and workforce development, forestry science, and natural resources management. Representative work includes a $8.243 million Payments to 1890 Land-Grant Colleges formula grant from USDA NIFA supporting research in food systems and food safety, global food security, human nutrition, and community planning (October 2025–September 2027); a $6.578 million Extension Services formula grant from USDA NIFA supporting payroll for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System operating in all 67 Alabama counties (October 2025–September 2030); a $2.605 million Strengthening HBCUs institutional aid grant from the Department of Education for fiscal operations and endowment building (October 2025–September 2027); a $1.5 million NSF STEM Education scholarship program for underprivileged science and engineering students (December 2021–November 2027); and a $10.159 million Federal Transit Administration grant for the university's Bulldog Transit System to achieve 100% zero-emission operations through electric bus procurement and solar-microgrid infrastructure (September 2024–March 2031). Capacity-building work includes a $1.381 million NSF STEM Education grant for the DEFEND project recruiting underrepresented students into food, environment, and natural resources disciplines (December 2021–November 2026) and a $845 thousand NSF Integrative Activities award for swarm robotics control research with reinforcement learning (September 2024–August 2027).

The top customer agencies account for 53% of recent awards by count, led by USDA NIFA (206 awards), followed by NSF (60 awards), NASA (44 awards), and the Department of the Army (43 awards). By potential value, the distribution is much more concentrated: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center anchors $3.9 million in potential value across 16 awards, while the broader USDA and NSF portfolios carry significantly lower individual award ceilings, consistent with formula and capacity-building grant structures.

Activity shows growth into 2024 (59 awards) before declining in 2025 and 2026 (29 and 14 awards respectively)—the decline reflects the source's recent data cutoff rather than a sustained trend. Thirty-six awards are scheduled to complete in the next twenty-four months with combined potential value of $60 thousand, indicating minimal near-term recompete pressure. The university holds no IDIQs or GWACs; its vehicle footprint is limited to several Navy and Army basic ordering agreements and indefinite delivery contracts under which it has placed a small number of task orders (five against Navy contract N0001482K0521).

In its subcontract role, Alabama A & M participates in collaborative research with peer institutions and national laboratories. Recent sub-award work includes participation in the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) coordinated by the University of Illinois (multiple years 2024–2025), research on cover crop integration for weed management as a sub-recipient to the University of Maryland (September 2026), and collaboration with Hampton University and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology on organic electronics and bioenergy crop evaluation (2024–2026). The Business Office Division serves as the administrative hub for grant administration, workforce development programming through the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and execution of federal capacity-building and research initiatives across the university's colleges.