Bucknell University

Bucknell University, a private nonprofit educational institution headquartered in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, operates as a prime recipient of federal research grants and a subrecipient on select federal grant programs, with no federal contract prime or subcontract presence in the source data. The university's federal footprint spans 241 awards across 53 distinct federal agencies, concentrated heavily in research funding through the National Science Foundation and Army-sponsored programs; Bucknell competes full-and-open across all set-aside categories and carries no SBA designations.

The National Science Foundation dominates Bucknell's customer concentration, accounting for 89 awards (37% of total award count) across the Divisions of Chemistry, Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation, Integrative Organismal Systems, Geosciences, Computing and Communication Foundations, Physics, Mathematical Sciences, and Information and Intelligent Systems. The Department of the Army ranks second with 26 awards. These two agencies and the National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities, the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service collectively represent 54% of all awards. Potential value concentration differs markedly from volume concentration—NSF places many awards but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Shared Services Center anchors 83% of combined potential value across just four awards totaling $446 thousand, suggesting NASA awards carry disproportionate dollar magnitude relative to NSF's volume advantage.

Bucknell's research portfolio spans life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and humanities disciplines. Representative NSF grant work includes a $236,565 three-year Project Grant (CFDA 47.049, Mathematical and Physical Sciences) awarded January 2027 to develop advanced data sampling techniques in multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a $378,672 National Institute of General Medical Sciences Project Grant (CFDA 93.859, Biomedical Research and Research Training) awarded September 2025 for bioorthogonal chemical imaging of protein lactylation, a $582,438 NSF Division of Integrative Organismal Systems three-year grant (CFDA 47.074, Biological Sciences) awarded December 2023 for collaborative research on life-history trade-offs in long-lived seabirds leveraging a 70-year demographic dataset on Leach's storm-petrels, and a $131,757 NSF Division of Earth Sciences grant (CFDA 47.050, Geosciences) awarded September 2025 for collaborative research on Late Devonian glaciation and vertebrate paleoecology in the Appalachian Basin. The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded humanities-focused work including a $149,251 grant for critical data studies research on carceral algorithms and a grant for development of an interdisciplinary health humanities minor. The Department of the Army and Army Research and Development and Engineering Command have funded materials-science and engineering research including process-property-microstructure studies and heterogeneous networks work. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Cooperative Services awarded a $152 thousand Rural Business Development Grant (CFDA 10.351) for technical assistance and business counseling to rural Pennsylvania enterprises.

Bucknell sits on five active Army vehicle task orders under Indefinite Delivery Contracts DAKF4082H0060 (five task orders), DAKF4076A0008 (three task orders), DAKF4083H0060, DAKF4085C1423, and DAKF4086C0358 (one task order each). No government-wide GWACs, agency-wide IDIQs, or GSA Schedules appear in the source data.

Activity has been irregular across the past five years—12 awards in 2023 declined to 8 in 2024, recovered to 11 in 2025, dropped to 3 in 2026, and shows 1 award so far in 2027. Eight awards with ultimate completion dates inside the next twenty-four months face recompete. Bucknell acts as prime recipient on 95% of awards; the remaining 5% are subaward positions, primarily under Small Business Development Center programs through Kutztown University as prime and under collaborative research with Lehigh University (Innovation Engineering Center of Excellence microentrepreneur program), Massachusetts General Hospital (cancer immunotherapy research), and Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (EPA Region 3 Thriving Communities environmental health work).

The university's award portfolio centers on project grants for undergraduate research institution investigations—designated RUI (Research at Undergraduate Institutions) awards recur across NSF, NIGMS, and other agencies, reflecting Bucknell's mission and positioning within the federal research funding ecosystem. Educational outcomes, workforce development, and STEM participation of underrepresented students appear throughout award descriptions as required or co-funded deliverables, aligning with broader impacts criteria across NSF and other science agencies.