Board Of Regents Of Nevada System Of Higher Education

Board Of Regents Of Nevada System Of Higher Education, doing business as University Of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), operates as a public research university and recipient of federal research grants and contracts across science, engineering, education, health sciences, and public health domains. The institution is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and a minority-serving public university headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, operating under the parent entity State of Nevada. UNLV competes on a full-and-open basis across its federal footprint—it holds no set-aside designations and does not operate under restricted procurement vehicles. The institution acts predominantly as a prime recipient of federal research grants (84% of awards) and holds a small subcontract footprint (16% of awards, primarily sub-grants under larger research collaborations).

UNLV's federal activity centers on research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and NASA, alongside educational support and training contracts from the Department of Education. Recent concrete examples of prime work include a $589,714 NSF Geosciences award for artificial intelligence and neotectonics research to advance active fault mapping (October 2026); a $1.3 million NSF STEM Education grant to develop semiconductor curriculum for high school students (August 2025); a $2.23 million National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke award to increase Alzheimer's disease clinical trial participation among sexual and gender minorities (August 2025); and a $4 million Department of Education grant for high-performance computing infrastructure (September 2024). The institution also operates under a $120 thousand Indian Health Service BPA established in September 2025 for comprehensive neurodevelopmental disorder evaluations, with at least one task order for $20 thousand awarded in December 2025. UNLV serves as a sub-recipient on federal research collaborations led by universities including South Dakota State University (on NSF-funded AI and small-molecule discovery), the University of Florida and University of Texas (on nuclear fuel cycle research), and Boston University (on chronic traumatic encephalopathy studies), performing specialized laboratory analysis, computational modeling, and graduate student research support.

Federal customer concentration reflects UNLV's research university mission. The top five funding sources account for 33% of recent awards by count: National Science Foundation (162 awards), Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (111 awards), NASA Shared Services Center (102 awards, $15.3 million potential value), Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (78 awards, $4.8 million potential value), and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (57 awards). A significant outlier exists in potential value concentration: the General Services Administration Public Buildings Service Central Office reports 22 awards with $444.7 million combined potential value—the source indicates these are tied to a Basic Ordering Agreement (GS09B99097) with 97 task orders totaling $709.7 million. This vehicle appears to structure facility lease or facility management support rather than research or education services; the concentration signals real estate or facilities revenue rather than core mission delivery. Award volume has contracted markedly from a peak of 167 awards in 2024 to 92 in 2025 and 57 in 2026, with only 1 award dated in 2027, suggesting either reporting lags or a substantive decline in new federal research and education awards.

UNLV does not appear on federal service contracts captured in the Service Contract Inventory above the $150 thousand reporting threshold, except for a single SCI record in FY2024 as a named subcontractor (0.4 FTEs). This reflects that the institution's federal footprint is dominated by research and education grants—domains excluded from SCI—rather than labor-intensive service contracts. The institution's sub-contract activity is primarily grant sub-awards and smaller service delivery subcontracts under prime grants from other institutions. Recent subcontract examples include work on wastewater-based surveillance for gonorrhea and mpox detection under NIH awards, climate adaptation research under a Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center subaward, and evaluation and biometric analysis services across health and neurodegenerative disease research networks.

UNLV's federal grant portfolio spans NSF research funding in STEM education, materials science, computer science, geosciences, and mathematical and physical sciences; NIH awards in biomedical research, neuroscience, medical sciences, and public health; NASA science mission support; Department of Defense basic research and military health services research; and Department of Education Title V maternal and child health, TRIO student support services, and special education workforce development grants. The institution administers multiple federal education and research centers: the Nevada Isotope Geochronology Laboratory, the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience (COBRE Phase II partnership with Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health), the Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy, and the Clinical Simulation Center of Las Vegas. This portfolio positions UNLV as a research and education infrastructure provider to federal agencies with strength in planetary science, biomedical research, workforce development, and STEM education—particularly for Hispanic and underrepresented populations across the Southwest.