Ben Gurion University Of The Negev

Ben Gurion University Of The Negev Research & Development Authority (Rda) Division, a non-profit educational institution based in Be'er Sheva, Israel, operates as a federal grant recipient conducting basic and applied research in materials science, marine technology, environmental science, and biomedical applications, with no federal contract prime awards and minimal subcontract engagement.

The university acts as a prime grant recipient across 75 of its 91 total federal awards (82%), with particular concentration in the Department of State Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (17 awards), the Office of Naval Research (10 awards), the Air Force (10 awards), and the Army (9 awards). These five agencies account for 57% of its award volume. The combined obligated dollars across all awards total $22.3 million against a combined potential value of $34 thousand, indicating that the source's reported potential-value metrics carry limited reliability for valuation; the obligated-dollars figure is the operative measure of realized federal funding flow. The university's most recent award, dated July 9, 2026, is an Army Research Development and Engineering Command grant for research on synergy in wireless-device swarms and drone-sensor networks, running through July 2029. Other recent prime grants include a $178,500 Office of Naval Research project award (December 2025) on gallium nitride surface and interface states relevant to naval technologies, completing December 2028; a $150,000 Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program grant (March 2025) on electromechanical behavior of ionic gels for physical intelligence, completing March 2027; and an Office of Naval Research $630,544 grant (June 2023) supporting neurorehabilitation program evaluation in the Near East region, completing June 2027. The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs portfolio spans environmental and public-health research including coral reef technology development, desalination assessment, e-waste impacts, wastewater irrigation effects, and disease ecology of Leishmania in the West Bank, with award dates ranging from 2022 through 2027.

The university operates predominantly as a research grant recipient rather than a federal contractor. Its subcontract footprint is minimal: two SCI-reportable service-contract subengagements (1.5 FTEs in FY2022, 1.3 FTEs in FY2024) constitute the only recorded federal service-contract activity above the $150,000 threshold. The university subgrants to research collaborations through prime recipients including the University of Pennsylvania, Tulane, University of Louisville, New York University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Yale University, the Salk Institute, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, with work spanning biomarker analysis for traumatic brain injury, microbiota and dietary intervention studies, HIV reverse transcription mechanisms, and hematopoietic stem-cell research. One contract sub-award to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (July 2024) supports NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response work on SARS-CoV-2 antibody mapping.

Activity in recent years shows four awards (8 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 11 in 2024, 5 in 2025, 2 in 2026) across a 22-agency customer base. Four awards are approaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing the near-term recompete exposure. The university's federal footprint reflects its role as a research institution supporting U.S. defense, diplomatic, and health-science priorities rather than a service contractor or systems integrator; its offerings are pure research grants in materials science, biosystems, environmental engineering, and medical research delivered from its Israel-based facility.