Ball State University

Ball State University, a state-controlled institution of higher learning headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, acts as a federal grant recipient across research, education, and public service programming, with no federal contracts as a prime or subcontractor. The university is not subject to SBA set-asides; it operates as a public educational institution administering 278 total awards (234 prime grants, 44 sub-grants) across 74 distinct federal agencies since 1983.

Ball State's federal footprint centers on research and educational programming through the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the National Park Service. The university serves as prime recipient on 234 grants spanning basic research in biological sciences, chemistry, mathematics, and engineering; K-12 and higher-education programming in STEM, civics, and special populations; and cultural and educational stewardship through museum and library services. Recent representative grants include a $554,538 Museums for America award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to upgrade the Charles W. Brown Planetarium's projection system (September 2026); a $1.755 million American History and Civics Education grant from the Department of Education to expand CREATE250 civic education (October 2025); a $876,730 Biological Sciences grant from NSF Division of Environmental Biology investigating genetic rescue protocols in threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs (January 2026); and a $392,649 Engineering grant from NSF Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems to develop aromatic-metabolizing enzymes through directed evolution with undergraduate research participation (May 2026).

The National Science Foundation dominates Ball State's prime grant portfolio with 40 awards, followed by the Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (17 awards) and the Department of the Interior National Park Service (14 awards). Together these three agencies cover 42% of recent awards. On the dollar side, the Army's Indiana Army National Guard anchors the largest single customer concentration at $1.4 million combined potential value across 28 awards, though this reflects IDC task orders placed against contract W912L905D0001 rather than research grants. The source data reflects $4.8 million in combined potential value across all recent awards against $208.8 million in actual dollars obligated, indicating substantial prior-year funding and completion of multi-year grant cycles.

Ball State operates as a sub-recipient on 44 grants, including workforce development and regional health access projects under Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, early literacy initiatives with Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and specialized research collaborations with Purdue University, Indiana University, George Mason University, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Notable sub-recipient work includes participation in the MoTrPAC (Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium) research program hosted at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, surveillance research on congenital heart disease linked through Indiana University's Fairbanks School of Public Health, and social-psychology consultation on disease-outbreak behavioral modeling under George Mason University's NSF-funded "Data-Driven Modeling to Improve Understanding of Human Behavior, Mobility and Disease Spread" initiative (awarded April 2024, extended August and September 2025).

Nine awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure primarily in NSF basic research grants and K-12 education programming. Activity has remained relatively stable at 13–18 awards per calendar year over the past five years. Ball State's grant work integrates undergraduate and graduate student research training as a core deliverable across most NSF awards, particularly through Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) designations, and supports workforce pipeline initiatives in STEM and civics education aligned with federal policy priorities.