Ball State University

Ball State University's Controller's Office Division is a U.S. state government educational institution headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, that acts as a federal grant recipient across research, education, and public service domains. The university does not hold federal contracts as a prime or subcontractor; it operates exclusively as a grant recipient and sub-recipient under federal research and education programs. Ball State is a primarily undergraduate institution with no SBA set-aside certifications.

Ball State's federal footprint is heavily concentrated in research grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education. The National Science Foundation leads by award count with 39 grants spanning mathematical sciences, biological sciences, chemistry and engineering, and integrative activities programs. Recent NSF-funded research includes a $876,730 three-year award (CFDA 47.074, Division of Environmental Biology) to quantify outbreeding depression thresholds in threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs for genetic rescue protocols applicable to endangered species recovery; a $392,649 grant (CFDA 47.041, Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems) for enzyme engineering research developing aromatic-metabolizing enzyme variants through directed evolution and artificial intelligence protein modeling; and a $125,349 award (CFDA 47.049, Division of Mathematical Sciences) investigating non-smooth geometry and analysis with applications to pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and computer science. The Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education has awarded 17 grants, including a $1.755 million CREATE250 initiative (CFDA 84.422) to expand civic education in American history and civics for elementary and secondary students, with emphasis on underserved populations. The Department of the Interior National Park Service has issued 14 awards, primarily under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CFDA 15.922) for consultation, documentation, and repatriation activities with federally recognized Indian tribes; recent awards include a $149,918 grant for in-person consultation with Native American communities and an earlier $109,949 repatriation award supporting the transfer and reburial of human remains to the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

Ball State also holds a limited military customer relationship through the Department of the Army Indiana Army National Guard, which accounts for 28 awards totaling $1.4 million in combined potential value under an indefinite delivery contract (W912L905D0001), though the source does not detail the specific work scope. The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded public humanities and educational programming, including exhibition implementation and teacher professional development grants focused on American history and cultural preservation.

The university acts as a prime recipient in 232 of its 268 recent federal awards (87%) and as a sub-recipient in 36 awards (13%). Sub-award work includes participation in consortia led by universities such as Indiana University, Purdue University, George Mason University, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center on surveillance of congenital heart disease, data-driven disease modeling, and biomedical research. Grant work performed at Ball State's Muncie, Indiana location involves hands-on research training for undergraduate and graduate students as an explicit deliverable across NSF grants. A field-emission scanning electron microscope acquisition grant (NSF CFDA 47.083, $292,500) and a biomolecular imaging system acquisition grant (CFDA 47.083, $184,267) position Ball State as a regional nanomaterials and molecular biology research facility serving surrounding Indiana universities and high schools. Award activity has remained stable, averaging 13–18 awards per year over the past five years, with ten awards completing within the next twenty-four months.