American Indian Higher Education Consortium

American Indian Higher Education Consortium, doing business as Aihec, is a non-profit American Indian-owned educational organization headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia that operates as a federal grant recipient and occasional contract awardee, serving as the coordinating support network for 37 Tribal Colleges and Universities across the United States and Canada. Aihec competes in full-and-open federal funding with no set-aside designations.

Aihec's federal footprint splits between modest recurring purchase orders for membership and conference support services, and a substantially larger grant portfolio focused on STEM education, research capacity building, workforce development, and indigenous cultural preservation. On the contract side, the Bureau of Indian Education awards Aihec annual or semi-annual firm fixed-price purchase orders for membership services and conference coordination, typically ranging from $24,000 to $30,600, with recent awards in January 2026 for general membership support ($30.6 thousand, completion December 2026) and Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute membership support ($30.6 thousand, completion September 2026). Aihec's contract ceiling across all awards reaches $13.5 million in combined potential value, though obligated dollars ($103.8 million) substantially exceed potential value, reflecting historical grant execution.

On the grant side, Aihec receives prime awards from multiple federal agencies. Recent and ongoing recipients include a $482,421 National Institute of General Medical Sciences project grant (CFDA 93.859, awarded August 2025 through July 2030) for the Circle of Health Research Training initiative, delivering community-based biomedical education and mentorship to over 500 Tribal College and University students annually in partnership with the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board; a $601,000 Department of the Interior Assistance to Tribally Controlled Community Colleges and Universities project grant (CFDA 15.027, July 2025 through June 2026) for membership services and technical assistance; a $2.12 million NASA cooperative agreement (November 2023 through December 2026) for the Building Bridges 2023 program advancing indigenous educational initiatives; and a $123,442 National Science Foundation project grant (CFDA 47.070, awarded June 2025 through May 2026) for the Tribal College and University Cyberinfrastructure Workshop, delivering professional development to IT directors, CIOs, and faculty on strategic planning, cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and connectivity. Aihec also holds a National Science Foundation Tribal College and University Cyberinfrastructure Facilitation initiative grant (September 2023 through August 2028) supporting STEM applications, climate science, and Native language preservation across tribal campuses; a National Institute of General Medical Sciences Building Indigenous Research Capacity in Health project grant (September 2022 through July 2027) implementing health research programs across all 37 TCUs; and a Department of Agriculture cooperative agreement (April 2023 through March 2028) on Building Capacity for 1994 Extension and Native Agriculture, providing training and technical assistance to 1994 land-grant institutions and Native American farmers, ranchers, and food producers. Earlier STEM and research grants include NSF funding for a CISE Research Expansion Principal Investigators Conference (October 2023 through September 2025) and a Tribal College and University Cyberinfrastructure Community of Practice Workshop (July 2023 through June 2024). Grant work also spans the National Endowment for the Humanities (Sioux Literature in Translation planning project, 2021–2023), the National Resources Conservation Service (workforce development partnership with 1994 tribal colleges, 2021–2026), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Customer concentration by award count centers on the National Science Foundation (16 awards) and the Department of the Interior's various Bureau of Indian Affairs offices (32 combined awards across Albuquerque Acquisition Office, Bureau of Indian Education, and Southern Plains Region), representing 41% of all awards. By combined potential value, NASA dominates with $10.1 million across seven awards, followed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Indian Education, accounting for 88% of total potential dollars. Aihec holds no parent contract vehicles (GWACs, IDIQs, BPAs, or GSA Schedules); all work is direct grant or purchase order awards.

Award activity has declined in recent years — four awards in 2022, ten in 2023, four in 2024, three in 2025, and two in the first five months of 2026 — with nine awards (combined potential value $2.2 million) facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. Aihec acts as prime recipient on 99% of awards and holds a single identified sub-award as a sub-grantee to the University of California on a Native FEWS Alliance NSF project, providing metrics, data collection, evaluation, and outreach support.