Carnegie-Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University's Office of Sponsored Programs Division, a tax-exempt private research university headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, acts as a prime recipient for federal research grants and contracts spanning basic research, applied development, and educational programs across 213 distinct federal agencies. The institution does not compete under small-business set-asides and holds no small-business certifications; all awards reflect open competition based on technical merit and institutional capability.

CMU's federal footprint is heavily concentrated in research and development. Over the past five years, the institution has received 6,063 total awards (5,493 prime, 570 sub) with combined potential value of $951.3 million and combined obligated dollars of $4.83 billion. The National Science Foundation dominates by award count (1,519 awards), followed by the Department of the Navy (458 awards), the Department of the Air Force (310 awards), and the Department of the Army (292 awards, $166.5 million combined potential value). By dollar value, the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command leads with 98 awards worth $179.1 million in combined potential value, followed by the Army itself ($166.5 million across 292 awards), NIH ($76.8 million across 149 awards), DARPA ($66.6 million across 132 awards), and NASA ($55 million across 146 awards). The concentration is wide: the top five customer agencies account for 57 percent of combined potential value across 677 awards.

CMU's capability portfolio centers on basic and applied research in physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, artificial intelligence, robotics, materials science, biomedical engineering, and quantum information science. Representative work includes a $3.92 million Other Transaction Agreement with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for the CMU Prototype project (awarded September 30, 2025, performance through September 29, 2029); an $18.05 million Cooperative Agreement with ARPA-H for the Liver Immunocompetent Volumetric Engineering (LIVE) initiative to develop 3D bioprinted liver tissue (awarded September 26, 2025); a $10 million Cooperative Agreement with NSF's Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure to operate BRIDGES-3, a national hybrid computing platform for AI, data analytics, and HPC research (awarded June 1, 2026); and a $5 million Cooperative Agreement to establish the AI Science Foundry as an NSF Programmable Cloud Lab node integrating over 80 robotically controlled scientific instruments with AI agents and high-performance computing (awarded August 1, 2026). A $1.51 million NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award (August 15, 2026) supports three years of financial support for NSF GRFP fellows pursuing graduate education in STEM at CMU through July 31, 2031. Education and workforce development recur across the portfolio: a $999.502 million NSF award funds the Apple Tea Project to develop and deploy a simulation-based cybersecurity curriculum for community college students (October 15, 2026); a $749.261 million award supports adaptation of CMU's college-level AI literacy curriculum for high school classrooms across Beaver County, Pennsylvania (September 1, 2026); and a $453.722 million Institute of Museum and Library Services award funds training of 140 academic library professionals in coding and generative AI literacy through seven intensive cohorts (September 1, 2026).

CMU operates as a research institution that acts primarily as a prime recipient (91 percent of awards). The institution does not maintain a subcontracting program as its core business model; SCI-reportable federal services invoicing (FY2022–FY2025) totaled $9.4 million across 19 records (11 prime, 8 named sub), with FY2024 peak invoicing of $4.9 million across 15.7 FTEs. Median government-paid hourly rates on prime contracts ran $112.19/hr, with rates ranging from $76.53/hr (10th percentile) to $161.28/hr (90th percentile), reflecting the mix of graduate student, postdoctoral, faculty, and administrative labor on research awards. Sub-engagement on SCI-reportable prime contracts was negligible (0 percent average sub-hours share), as CMU performs most research internally using its own faculty, students, and research staff.

CMU subcontracts to other research institutions and federal contractors as a performer under federal grants and as a research collaborator on larger consortia awards. Named sub-award examples include work under University of Pittsburgh as prime grantee on cardiac tissue bioprinting research (September 24, 2026), under Columbia University on game-theoretic AI research (July 14 and July 12, 2026), under Stanford on neighborhood environmental sensing and wellbeing modeling (June 11, 2026), and under Johns Hopkins on multi-modal AI for clinical signatures (August 31, 2026). CMU also receives sub-awards from DARPA and defense contractors: HRL Laboratories issued a sub-award for cognitive modeling in reverse engineering and vulnerability analysis (October 14, 2025); DCS Corporation issued a sub-award for technical and engineering services to support Army ground vehicle sensor ruggedization (September 24, 2025); and DAI Global LLC issued a sub-award for CMU's Software Engineering Institute to design and deliver a cybersecurity workshop for ASEAN members (August 31, 2026).

CMU holds two named federal contract IDVs. A single-award Indefinite Delivery contract with the Defense Department's Acquisition Support Center carries a $25 million ceiling for comprehensive AI-related training programs, curriculum development, course facilitation, and certification support through January 25, 2031 (awarded January 26, 2026), with five-year ordering period. Two delivery orders have been issued: the Department of the Army issued a $1.855 million order on April 27, 2026, for AI training and certification support (completion October 2, 2026); the Acquisition Support Center itself issued a $615,000 order on January 23, 2026, for AI training and curriculum development (completion January 22, 2027). A second IDV is a multiple-award Other Transaction Agreement with DARPA for the Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program, with a $1.871517 million ceiling, awarded March 5, 2026. No task orders have been issued under the HARQ OT IDV as of the source date. Task order activity under the top five parent vehicles (Indefinite Delivery Contract F0160078D0083 with 46 task orders; Basic Ordering Agreement N0018919GZ072 with 32 task orders worth $9.3 million; Indefinite Delivery Contract F1962885C0003 with 22 task orders; Indefinite Delivery Contract N0024409G0029 with 16 task orders worth $1.5 million; and Indefinite Delivery Contract N0016403D6623 with 13 task orders worth $4.8 million) reflects sustained Army, Navy, and Air Force reliance on CMU for research, training, and technical services.

Activity trajectory shows relative stability: 281 awards in 2023, 320 in 2024, 278 in 2025, and 160 in 2026 (reflecting source cutoff date of October 15, 2026); only three awards are dated 2027. Recompete exposure in the next 24 months totals 281 awards with combined potential value of $28.9 million. CMU's named subsidiaries include the Advanced Robotics For Manufacturing Institute (non-profit), Traffiqure LLC (for-profit, minority-owned, self-certified small disadvantaged business), and multiple subsidiary registrations of Carnegie Mellon University itself reflecting the university's multi-entity federal registration and subsidiary status for specific research initiatives and commercialization vehicles.