ANN & Robert H Lurie Childrens Hospital Of Chicago

Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, operating through its Office of Sponsored Programs Division, is a non-profit research institution that acts as a prime recipient on federal research grants and a subcontractor to academic and research institutions conducting basic and clinical pediatric biomedical research. The hospital does not hold federal contracts; it operates exclusively as a grant recipient and sub-recipient within the National Institutes of Health ecosystem and civilian federal research programs, with no set-aside posture.

The hospital's research portfolio spans pediatric-focused investigation across infectious disease, cardiovascular pathophysiology, oncology, metabolic disorders, and implementation science. Recent grant work anchors on NIH-funded Project Grants addressing acute care, growth metabolism, rare genetic diseases, and public health surveillance. Representative prime awards include a $109 thousand NICHD grant on child passenger safety intervention using geospatial analysis (CFDA 93.865, ultimate completion December 2030), a $3.16 million NIAID award for food allergy prevalence questionnaire validation (CFDA 93.855, through August 2029), a $876 thousand NHLBI grant on acute respiratory infection treatment in pediatric home mechanical ventilation (CFDA 93.837, through May 2031), and a $752 thousand USDA NIFA award on Medicaid reimbursement for local food businesses and nutrition support (CFDA 10.225, through September 2028). Two CDC contracts—a $296 thousand firm fixed price purchase order for hepatitis C elimination research (2023–2024, no set-aside) and a $536 thousand definitive cost contract on gas isolate molecular epidemiology (2022–2024)—complete the prime contract footprint. The hospital also receives federal support through a $499 thousand CDC cooperative agreement on Chicago-area diabetes surveillance (CFDA 93.988, through September 2027), with Northwestern University's Chicago Area Patient Centered Outcomes Research Network serving as a sub-recipient managing data coordination.

Customer concentration reflects deep embeddedness within the NIH funding ecosystem. The top five NIH funding institutes account for 49% of awards by count: the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (79 awards), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (68 awards), the NIH main umbrella (66 awards), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (66 awards), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (49 awards, $2 million combined potential value). Grant work dominates the portfolio—of 670 total awards (prime and sub), federal grants represent the institutional model; contract awards are rare and appear limited to CDC research procurements.

Activity has accelerated substantially. The hospital moved from 37 awards in 2022 to 148 in 2024, with 106 new awards in 2025 and 83 in 2026. Forty-five awards face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete and continuation opportunity. The hospital operates 46% as a prime recipient and 54% as a sub-recipient, indicating a hybrid funding posture—leading its own investigator-initiated research while serving as a clinical and research site for multi-institutional consortia anchored at Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, Boston Medical Center, Vanderbilt, and CHOP. Sub-award relationships center on collaborative research involving clinical data collection, specimen processing, site coordination, and mechanistic studies across multi-site networks funded by NIH and focused on pediatric disease outcomes.

SCI-reported invoiced revenue on federal service contracts is minimal—$211 thousand across three fiscal years (FY2024 peak), reflecting 0.5 FTEs delivered in FY2024 and 0.7 FTEs in FY2025. This subset reflects the hospital's posture as a research institution rather than a federal services contractor; the SCI data excludes research grants (which constitute the vast majority of the portfolio), goods, and non-federal clinical revenue. Median government-paid hourly rates derived from SCI records register at $0.00/hr, a statistical artifact of research grant funding structures that do not resolve to hourly rates in the same manner as service contracts; the 90th percentile rate of $1,109.66/hr reflects senior research leadership roles. The hospital does not engage external subcontractors on SCI-reportable prime contracts (0% average sub-hours share).

The hospital's federal footprint is dominated by basic and clinical research grants from the National Institutes of Health's institutes and centers, with emerging presence in public health surveillance and maternal and child health programs through CDC, SAMHSA, and USDA NIFA. It functions as an institutional vehicle for faculty research rather than as a federal contractor competing for service delivery work. Teaming occurs vertically—the hospital is frequently a clinical site or mechanistic core within larger multi-institutional consortia led by Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, or academic medical centers—rather than horizontally, through prime–sub relationships with for-profit contractors.