Brown University

Brown University, a private Ivy League research institution based in Providence, Rhode Island, serves as a prime recipient on federal grants and prime contractor on federal service and research contracts, operating across 162 federal customer agencies without set-aside restrictions and competing on scientific and technical merit. The university holds a diversified portfolio spanning basic research, applied research, education, and specialized services, with nearly $683 million in combined potential value across almost 5,000 awards (87% prime, 13% sub) accumulated since 1968.

Brown's customer base is highly diffuse by design, reflecting its profile as a comprehensive research university. The top five customer agencies by award count—the National Science Foundation (808 awards), the National Institutes of Health (350 awards), the Department of the Navy (280 awards), NASA's Shared Services Center (253 awards), and the National Institute on Aging (207 awards)—account for approximately 38% of recent awards. However, the potential-value ranking diverges sharply: NASA's Shared Services Center anchors 21% of combined potential value with $66 million, while the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ranks second with $48.5 million across 94 awards, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development delivers $23.7 million on 54 awards. This divergence reflects Brown's characteristic mix of high-dollar NASA science awards alongside numerous smaller NIH research project grants distributed across multiple institutes and disease categories. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 has placed 105 awards valued at $7.9 million, primarily for tuition and veterinary services under Executive Order 14398.

Brown's vehicle position centers on a single large blanket purchase agreement. The Basic Ordering Agreement GS01B04399 carries 77 task orders valued at $201.5 million in combined potential value and represents the dominant parent vehicle in the source data. A series of Veterans Affairs indefinite-delivery contracts—VA24115D0097, VA24114D0060, and related IDIQs—support recurring tuition and service delivery. The NSF and NASA maintain smaller single-award IDIQs with Brown for specialized research, typically in the tens to low hundreds of thousands in ceiling value. Brown does not appear on major government-wide acquisition contracts such as OASIS+, Alliant, or GSA Schedules in this dataset; the university's vehicle position is primarily agency-specific and research-focused.

Brown's recent activity shows recompetition exposure. Across the awards captured in the source, 313 prime and sub awards (combined potential value $20.7 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete risk and opportunity for competitors and collaborators alike. Award volume has fluctuated: 258 awards in 2023, 380 in 2024, 295 in 2025, and 247 in 2026, with only nine awards recorded in early 2027, suggesting data truncation rather than a sustained decline.

Service Contract Inventory data reveals a small but active professional-services footprint. Across FY2022–FY2025, Brown invoiced $20.2 million on 45 SCI-reportable service contracts (44 prime, 1 sub) with average FTE volume ranging from 5.8 to 38.3 per fiscal year. SCI is a partial view of Brown's federal services activity, excluding grants, research contracts priced on cost-reimbursement bases, and all non-federal revenue. Government-paid hourly rates for these services span from a 10th percentile of $68.23/hr (entry-level or general administrative labor) through a median of $150.77/hr (senior technical or professional staff) to a 90th percentile of $1,025.89/hr, consistent with specialized research and academic consultation. Across prime SCI contracts, an average of 16% of contractor hours were performed by subcontractors, indicating Brown typically builds its own delivery capacity but engages external specialists for discrete tasks.

Brown's subcontractor footprint on the prime side is sparse in the source data. Two named sub-awards appear: a $236,000 subaward from the University of Texas at Arlington for assessment of lower-limb exoskeletons to reduce injury risk in fast-boat operators (June 2026), and a $250,000-plus subaward under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency other-transaction agreement from the Department of the Interior for CMOS-addressable DNA random-access memory research (September 2026). On the grant side, Brown acts as a subrecipient on research awards from Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, and others, typically performing specialized analytical, statistical, or research-support functions (such as geochemical analysis, data management, or manuscript preparation) under prime grants in biomedical and environmental sciences.

In the inverse teaming relationship, Brown serves as prime on numerous NIH grants and NSF grants where other universities, hospitals, and research institutes sub-award to Brown. Recent examples include subawards to Rhode Island Hospital (multiple COBRE cores, clinical research), Women & Infants Hospital (perinatal care), Butler Hospital (mental health services), The Miriam Hospital (addiction and health services), Northeastern University (cell and molecular biology), and Northwestern University (behavioral intervention research). This pattern reflects Brown's role as a hub institution in a network of Providence-area and regional research partners, particularly for health research involving affiliated or nearby medical institutions.

Brown's grant portfolio spans the full spectrum of federal research funding: basic research in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and life sciences (NSF, NIH); applied research in engineering and environmental science (NSF, EPA, Army Corps of Engineers); clinical and translational research (NIH institutes); space science (NASA); and defense research (DARPA, Defense Health Agency, Army). Representative recent awards include a $1.2 million NSF award for mechanisms of base excision repair in nucleosomes (July 2026), a $1.196 million NIGMS COBRE Phase 3 renewal for a Center for Computational Biology of Human Disease (July 2026), an $897 thousand NASA balanced-science grant (July 2025), a $801.8 thousand NHLBI award to evaluate the Health Zones cardiovascular prevention initiative (June 2026), and multiple NIH K99/R00 and R21 awards for early-stage investigators in neuroscience, aging, addiction, and mental health. Brown also hosts federally funded education initiatives, including NSF-supported undergraduate and graduate training programs, REU sites, and international partnerships.

Federal contract revenue in the SCI system is modest by comparison to the grant footprint and likely reflects Brown's primary mission as a research and education institution rather than a federal services vendor. The largest parent contract vehicle by far is the GSA-administered Basic Ordering Agreement GS01B04399, which carries $201.5 million in combined potential value across 77 task orders for unspecified services (likely research, consulting, or training). The lack of detail in the source on contract scope and the concentration of dollars in a single BOA suggest that this vehicle may support a mix of tuition, research support, and specialized educational or technical services to federal agencies, though specific deliverables are not enumerated in the source.

Brown's posture in the federal marketplace is non-competitive set-aside, reflecting its status as a large, well-established research university. All major awards in the source carry "No Set-Aside Used" designations. Brown does not compete under 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB, or other socioeconomic set-aside vehicles; it competes directly against all offerors on technical merit and institutional capability in open procurements and peer-reviewed grant competitions. This competitive posture is consistent with a mature research institution with established track records, substantial infrastructure, and recognized expertise across multiple scientific and technical domains.