Arkansas State University

Arkansas State University Sponsored Programs Accounting Division, doing business as Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, is a state-controlled institution of higher learning that administers federal research grants and cooperative agreements as a prime recipient across 60 distinct federal agencies, with 91% of its recent federal footprint as a prime awardee rather than sub-recipient. The university operates a large federal grant portfolio centered on life sciences, agricultural research, materials science, and STEM education and infrastructure development.

The National Science Foundation is the dominant customer by award count, with 38 awards spanning instrumentation acquisition (major research instruments including a liquid chromatograph-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer, an X-ray diffractometer, and a nanoindenter), ecological and evolutionary research, materials engineering, and cyberinfrastructure planning. The Department of Agriculture appears in two forms — the Agricultural Research Service (22 awards) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (14 awards) — jointly anchoring applied agricultural research in crop genetics, plant microbiome interaction, pest management, and soil health economics. The Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (15 awards) and the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (14 awards) round out the top five customers by award count, funding TRIO student support services, transition programming for students with intellectual disabilities, and geriatric workforce development. However, the potential-value concentration differs markedly from volume concentration: the top five agencies by award count account for only 1% of combined potential value, indicating that Arkansas State holds many small, infrastructure-adjacent awards rather than large research grants. The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Field Research Implementation and Information Delivery unit and the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 carry the highest potential value on record, at $99 thousand and $39 thousand respectively across their respective award groups.

Recent representative prime grant work includes a $2.214 million National Science Foundation Integrative Activities award (August 2026) to develop fungal-based drought tolerance in rice and wheat through arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants in collaboration with the University of Kansas, University of Nebraska, and Kansas State University; a $10 million National Institute of Standards and Technology Congressionally-Identified Projects grant (October 2024) to establish an advanced steel research center focused on alloy design, fabrication, and property analysis for the regional steel industry; and a $719,800 National Science Foundation Biological Sciences grant (September 2025) for acquisition of LC-MS/MS and DESI imaging instrumentation to support ecotoxicological research on toxicant mixture effects on fish, anticancer agent distribution in plants, and wastewater treatment. Additional recent awards include a $605,140 Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant (October 2025) for the National Reptilian Immunology Database in partnership with nine zoos, a $386,644 Department of Education TRIO transition program grant (October 2025), and a $280,305 Department of Agriculture Agriculture and Food Research Initiative award (September 2025) on oral biologics delivery via genetically engineered lettuce. The university's grant work spans institutional research development, student support services, conservation science, and materials innovation, with performance at the Jonesboro campus and subordinate campuses at Arkansas State University-Newport and Arkansas State University Mountain Home.

The university also operates on the General Services Administration Basic Ordering Agreement GS07B15618, with 57 task orders carrying $521 thousand in combined potential value, and holds an Indefinite Delivery Contract DACW0382C0082 with the Army. The asset-heavy NAICS footprint reflects the institution's role as a real-estate and educational entity: the top NAICS categories are Lessors of Nonresidential Buildings (58 awards) and Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (5 awards), indicating that a substantial portion of the federal relationship centers on building leases and campus facilities rather than pure research delivery. Awards with ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months total 11, representing recompete exposure across the STEM education and agricultural research portfolios.

As a sub-recipient, Arkansas State participates in collaborative grants led by the University of Arkansas For Medical Sciences (Partnerships for Biomedical Research in Arkansas, geriatrics workforce development, and outreach programs), Duke University (neuropsychiatry and Alzheimer's disease research), the University of Arkansas (AR-STRIDES transportation and logistics data science), and the Department of Education of Arkansas (teaching academy grants), receiving task orders on research support, workforce training, and data science capabilities.