Cary Institute Of Ecosystem Studies, Inc.

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Inc. is a tax-exempt nonprofit research organization based in Millbrook, New York that serves as a prime recipient on federal research grants and contracts, delivering long-term ecological field research, monitoring, and data management services to federal agencies with no federal contracts or contract vehicles held as a prime.

The institute's federal work centers on ecosystem science research spanning disease ecology, forest dynamics, carbon cycling, watershed biogeochemistry, and urban ecology. Recent representative grants include a $471,214 NSF Biological Sciences award (CFDA 47.074) for long-term research on rodent and tick dynamics driving Lyme disease risk in oak forests (April 2025–March 2030); a $655,198 NSF award for collaborative research on the role of bryophytes in headwater stream nutrient cycling (September 2025–August 2028); a $178,231 NSF synthesis award on 35 years of Lyme disease ecology research (June 2026–May 2027); and a $599,101 NSF Biological Sciences award supporting the BIORETS teacher professional development program placing nine educators per year in six-week summer research immersion at the institute (February 2024–January 2027). The institute also holds a $34,811 NOAA purchase order for atmospheric deposition monitoring support at a National Atmospheric Deposition Program site in Ithaca, New York (terminated for convenience April 30, 2025). On the contract side, the institute received a $127,308 award from NASA's Shared Services Center for science formulation support to the Surface Biology and Geology Project Office via the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network Fellowship Program (September 2021–August 2026).

Customer concentration sits heavily with the National Science Foundation, which accounts for the majority of the institute's 149 total awards across prime and sub roles (covering 74% of awards by count). The Division of Environmental Biology alone anchors 17 named awards. The top five customer agencies by count—NSF, NSF Division of Environmental Biology, NOAA, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service—account for 74% of recent awards. NOAA and EPA Research Triangle Park carry small dollar values ($55 thousand and $40 thousand respectively), while NSF awards represent the bulk of potential value.

The institute operates as a prime on 136 of 149 awards (91%), with a subrecipient footprint on 13 grants (9%) under prime recipients including Georgetown University (leading Theme 2 research activities on virus transmission and biodiversity in urban landscapes across multiple NSF awards), the University of Kansas Center for Research, the University of Maryland Baltimore County (conducting Baltimore Ecosystem Study watershed biogeochemistry work), Boston University (tick forecast model recalibration and validation across the eastern U.S.), the University of Connecticut (mentoring of NRT students in urban ecology), the University of South Florida (SARS-CoV-2 ecological studies), and the Regents of the University of Idaho (fire and drought impacts on forest structure).

Activity has declined from a peak of ten awards in 2024 to four to five annually in 2025–2026. Seven awards carrying combined potential value of $127 thousand face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating near-term recompete exposure. The institute's work spans basic ecological research, field monitoring and data management, teacher professional development and curriculum development, and applied ecosystem science informing land management decisions. Place of performance includes the Millbrook headquarters, field sites across the northeastern United States (Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, Baltimore Ecosystem Study watersheds in Maryland), and international locations including Panama, Brazil, England, and Uganda for tropical forest and rodent virome research.