Clark Atlanta University, Inc.

Clark Atlanta University, Inc., a private, historically Black university located in Atlanta, Georgia, operates as a prime recipient of federal research grants and educational contracts, with no primary contracting vehicle footprint and no federal contract prime awards reflected in recent activity — the university's federal engagement centers on grant funding from civilian research and education agencies. The institution is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity founded in 1988 through the merger of Atlanta University and Clark College and competes predominantly on full-and-open solicitations across multiple federal grant programs without set-aside designations.

Clark Atlanta's federal activity spans STEM research, workforce development, educational infrastructure, and institutional capacity building. The university holds recent prime grants across materials science, aeronautics research, cybersecurity, data science, and biomedical research. Representative examples include a $447,195 project grant from the Research Development and Engineering Command (CFDA 12.630) for acquisition of thermomechanical instrumentation in materials science (obligated June 2026), a $40,180 NASA Aeronautics Research and Mission Directorate grant (CFDA unspecified) for undergraduate and graduate student participation in aeronautics research (effective January 2026), a $5 million Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant for research and development infrastructure to support transition to R1 status (obligated November 2024), and a $1.989 million National Science Foundation STEM Education award for the HBCU CHIPS Network connecting HBCUs, government agencies, academia, and industry in semiconductor research and education (September 2024). The university also received $1.049 million in NSF Integrative Activities funding for molecular and functional interactions research between TEAD and androgen receptor transcription factors (September 2024), and a $500 thousand Department of Education grant for a Cyber Security Leadership Center focused on research, education, and training in cybersecurity for critical infrastructure (September 2024).

Customer concentration sits with civilian research and education agencies, with no customer dominating the footprint at scale. The top five funding agencies by award count — the Department of the Army (102 awards), the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (37 awards, $250 thousand combined potential value), the National Science Foundation (32 awards), the Department of the Air Force (19 awards), and the Department of the Navy (18 awards) — account for 46 percent of all awards. By potential value, concentration is thin; the Department of the Navy Bureau of Naval Personnel anchors nine awards carrying $464 thousand in potential value, but that represents 9 percent of the combined potential across the entire footprint. The Navy's narrower role reflects tuition and allowable fees for Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps midshipmen at Clark Atlanta, including a $70 thousand delivery order for Spring 2026 NROTC midshipmen tuition (February 2026) and a $70 thousand Fall 2025 NROTC order (October 2025). NASA's Shared Services Center, the Naval Education and Training Command, the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Education round out the dollar leaders, each carrying sub-$500 thousand aggregate values. The discrepancy between award-count and potential-value concentration signals that most federal activity comprises smaller research grants and educational awards across many agencies rather than large anchoring vehicles.

The university holds no multi-agency GWACs or BPAs of its own. Its prime parent vehicles consist of five named IDIQs: Indefinite Delivery Contract N0014006G0007 (Naval Education and Training Command, 12 task orders, $415 thousand combined potential value), Basic Ordering Agreement N0018919GZ057 (Bureau of Naval Personnel, 8 task orders, $526 thousand combined potential value), Indefinite Delivery Contract DACA8891D0008 (Army, 8 task orders), Indefinite Delivery Contract DACA0199D0009 (Army, 5 task orders), and Indefinite Delivery Contract N0001480C0557 (Navy, 4 task orders). These vehicles support primarily educational services and tuition support rather than research or advanced technical work.

Activity has been episodic over the past five years: 16 awards in 2022, 15 in 2023, 30 in 2024, 13 in 2025, and 5 so far in 2026 — showing volatility rather than sustained growth. Twenty-three awards (combined potential value $918 thousand) reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and face recompete or renewal. The combined potential value across the entire 450-award footprint is $16.5 million, though obligated dollars across all awards total $514.5 million, indicating that actual invoiced revenue substantially exceeds the sum of contract ceilings, a pattern typical of multi-year grants where annual funding exceeds stated award maximums.

Clark Atlanta functions as a sub-recipient on a small number of federal research grants from larger primes. Named subcontract relationships include Georgia Tech Research Corp (hydrogen testing consortium, vertical transport engineering assessments, AI institute), the University of Illinois (adaptive zero-trust cybersecurity for advanced reactors), Florida A&M University (data science curriculum project), Georgia State University Research Foundation (behavioral health internship program), Spelman College (research enterprise transformation initiative), and the Ohio State University (multidisciplinary research in image retrieval and disaster analytics). This sub-recipient footprint represents 7 percent of the total award portfolio and centers on research collaboration and workforce development initiatives rather than operational delivery roles.

The university's capability footprint in federal work centers on STEM undergraduate and graduate education, particularly for African American and other underrepresented minority students; materials science and chemistry research; cybersecurity and data science research and training; biomedical and life sciences research; and institutional capacity building at HBCUs. The primary NAICS category is Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (39 awards), with supplemental activity in Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (3 awards) and All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (2 awards). Top PSC codes reflect Education/Training tuition and registration fees (30 awards), Defense R&D basic research (15 awards), environmental and special studies analysis (14 awards), general education and training (14 awards), and space R&D (13 awards).