Charles R. Drew University Of Medicine And Science

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, a historically Black college and minority-serving institution headquartered in Los Angeles, California, acts as a federal grant recipient delivering health professions training, biomedical research, and public health workforce development to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education. The institution competes primarily as a grant recipient rather than a federal contractor and holds no federal contract prime or subcontract positions; its federal footprint is 63% prime grant awards and 37% grant sub-awards. CDU is a tax-exempt private university and holds designations as a Minority Institution, Hispanic Servicing Institution, and Historically Black College or University.

CDU's federal grant portfolio spans health professions training, HIV prevention and surveillance, maternal and child health, biomedical research on cardiometabolic and cancer biology, and workforce diversity initiatives. Representative prime grant work includes a $499,999 five-year Project Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Professionals under the Primary Care Training and Enhancement program (CFDA 93.884), effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2031, supporting the Street Medicine Advance Residency Training program that trains Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residents in street-based care for people experiencing homelessness; a $144,500 four-year research award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (CFDA 93.859) beginning September 1, 2025 investigating exercise-induced cardiometabolic protection mechanisms; and a $2.5 million Primary Care Training and Enhancement grant from HRSA supporting community-focused mental and behavioral health residency training for family medicine residents serving children, adolescents, and young adults in underserved urban communities. Additional prime awards include maternal and child health workforce training, Title III institutional strengthening, biomedical research on breast cancer, electronic cigarette effects on cardiac dysfunction, and liver disease mechanisms funded by NIGMS, as well as summer research training for substance use disorder researchers supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and aging-research workforce development funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Customer concentration centers on the Department of Health and Human Services components. The top five funding agencies account for 57% of recent awards by count, led by HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (46 awards), HHS National Institutes of Health across multiple institutes (22 awards, with 18 awards specifically from NIGMS), the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (12 awards), and HHS Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professionals (9 awards). By potential value, CDU's portfolio carries $202 thousand in combined potential value across 188 awards, though obligated dollars total $541.7 million, reflecting a mature grant portfolio with substantial invoiced performance. The CDC and NIH dominate both volume and dollars.

CDU's sub-award footprint places it as a collaborator and research partner under prime grants held by the University of California Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, UCLA San Francisco, the Regents of the University of Michigan, Morgan State University, and the California Office of Emergency Services. Sub-award work includes implementation of HIV surveillance and prevention programs, clinical data management and research coordination for multi-site intervention trials, curriculum development for HIV interprofessional education, child advocacy and forensic interview services, and collaborative biomedical research on breast cancer pathways and social determinants of health outcomes.

Activity has concentrated in recent years, with five awards in 2022 growing to 38 in 2024, then contracting to eight in 2025 and two in the first two weeks of July 2026; twelve awards face completion within the next twenty-four months. CDU serves 32 distinct federal customer agencies. The institution's grant portfolio reflects its mission as a historically Black university: workforce training for underrepresented minority students in health professions and biomedical research, community-engaged research addressing health disparities in Los Angeles County, and academic partnerships with UCLA and other research-intensive universities to advance minority health and health disparities research across cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiometabolic disease, mental health, and substance use disorder prevention and treatment.