Cleveland State University

Cleveland State University's Office of Sponsored Programs & Research, doing business as CSU, operates as a prime recipient and sub-recipient of federal research grants and contracts across 75 federal agencies, with a research portfolio concentrated in STEM education, space science, and biomedical research funded by NSF, NASA, and NIH.

CSU is a public, state-controlled research institution headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, with no SBA set-asides and competes full-and-open across federal funding opportunities. The university acts exclusively as a prime grant recipient and prime contract awardee (90% of recent awards), with selective subcontracting to partner research institutions and medical centers. CSU's research mission spans investigator-initiated basic and applied research, undergraduate and graduate STEM education and training programs, and translational research with emphasis on expanding participation of underrepresented students and addressing urban environmental challenges.

CSU's customer concentration sits with research agencies. The National Science Foundation leads by award count with 67 recent grants; NASA Glenn Research Center anchors the dollar value with 40 awards ($41.3 million combined potential value), while NASA's Shared Services Center carries 25 awards ($4.2 million). The top five funding agencies account for 32% of recent awards. These rankings align closely on both volume and dollar metrics—NSF dominate in count, NASA in total value—with the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education rounding out the top customers with 23 awards. Grant funding predominates; CSU holds task orders under two NASA parent vehicles (IDIQs NNC07BA14B and related mechanisms) carrying $2.9 million and subordinate potential values.

Activity has remained steady across 2022–2025 (27–30 awards per year), with 34 awards (combined potential value $950 thousand) reaching ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete opportunity. Over three decades of awards (first recorded 1995), CSU has accumulated $200.7 million in combined potential value across 519 awards, with obligated dollars reaching $304.8 million, reflecting multi-year grant lifecycles and federal commitment to sustained research partnerships.

CSU's research portfolio centers on remote sensing and environmental monitoring—particularly Great Lakes water quality, harmful algal blooms, and urban forestry; advanced materials and engineering including shape memory alloys, bioprinting and tissue scaffolds for peripheral nerve and muscle regeneration, and electrochemical sensing; biomedical discovery in hemoglobin switching, mitochondrial therapeutics, and immune responses to viral infection; and STEM workforce development through REU sites, graduate fellowships, and teacher-training initiatives. Representative prime grants include a $949 thousand NASA award for PACE OCI science data validation across Great Lakes optical gradients; a $793 thousand Department of Education grant for TRIO Student Support Services serving low-income and first-generation students; a $1.47 million Department of Education American History and Civics Education grant for Seminars in American Civics; and a $552 thousand NIH award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for STAG1 protein function during red blood cell development. NSF Early Research Initiative (ERI) and CAREER awards support emerging faculty in bioengineered scaffolds, quantum sensing, and urban microclimate modeling. Recent REU site grants include rehabilitation engineering ($516 thousand), soft matter systems ($367 thousand), and Great Lakes wind energy research.

In its subcontractor role, CSU participates as a research partner under primes including Case Western Reserve University on grants spanning cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis and collaborative wind energy research; Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CWRU) on CREATE Scientists in KUH biomedical training networks and protein complex modeling; Weill Medical College of Cornell University on longitudinal neuroimaging analysis of MS-related cognitive decline; and Cuyahoga Community College on NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate research training for underrepresented minority students. CSU also subs to Texas Tech University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Wisconsin on environmental and computational research efforts. These partnerships position CSU as a research collaborator rather than prime, with scope typically covering specialized personnel, computational resources, and data analysis support.

CSU's federal grant landscape reflects its institutional mission as an urban research university. Top NAICS codes include Educational Support Services (27 awards) and Professional and Management Development Training (16 awards), alongside basic and applied research in physical and life sciences. PSC coding shows space R&D and science/applications research dominates (40+ awards), with education and training (16+ awards) forming a secondary capability cluster. The university attracts federal investment in inclusive STEM pathways, workforce preparation for underrepresented groups, and research-informed undergraduate and graduate education, delivering outcomes through its Office of Sponsored Programs & Research to over 75 agencies without reliance on set-aside vehicles. This full-and-open posture, combined with steady recompete activity and multi-decade relationship tenure with NSF and NASA, positions CSU as an established federal research partner in the academic sector.