Depaul University

DePaul University, a Chicago-based private Catholic university, receives federal research grants across multiple federal agencies as a prime recipient (90% of recent awards) and sub-recipient, with a deep footprint in basic and applied research, STEM education, and community-engaged research programs that do not compete under set-asides. The university is a tax-exempt nonprofit educational institution with no federal procurement contracts; its federal funding comprises research grants, cooperative agreements, and educational support grants administered by science and education agencies rather than defense or civilian procurement vehicles.

DePaul's capability portfolio centers on academic research and faculty-led inquiry across computing science, environmental science, health sciences, and education. Representative prime grants include a $700,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing and Communication Foundations award (October 2026–September 2029) to form a networked improvement community studying course alignment and student success at critical computing education transition points, bringing together Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and University of Illinois Chicago; a $1.5 million NSF Division of Information and Intelligent Systems grant (September 2024–August 2027) to design and evaluate an analytics dashboard for community health workers in underserved Chicago neighborhoods to predict emergency department readmission rates; a $1.186 million NASA Shared Services Center grant (August 2022–June 2025) for reproducible containers advancing process-oriented collaborative analytics; and a $720,000 Department of Education (CFDA 84.215) award (June 2026–June 2029) to establish and operate the Center for Middle School Civic Leadership in Cook County, with Barat Education Foundation as subrecipient.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted to research sponsors. The National Science Foundation leads by award count with 81 awards covering 53% of the recent awards portfolio (though specific dollar totals are not broken out separately in the NSF category). The Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education has 13 awards; the Department of Defense has 12; NASA's Shared Services Center has 11 awards with $1.8 million in combined potential value; and the National Institutes of Health has 9 awards. The 62 distinct customer agencies reflect DePaul's reach across federal research sponsorship, though concentration is modest — no single agency dominates funding volume. The source reports $4.9 million in combined potential value across all 238 awards, but $207.8 million in combined dollars obligated, indicating that the majority of DePaul's federal funding represents already-executed grant agreements rather than open optionality.

Activity has been uneven over the past five years: 16 awards in 2022, declining to 7 in 2023, then recovering to 17 in 2024, 12 in 2025, and 6 in 2026 (through early October). Twelve awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing recompete exposure in the near term. DePaul's subcontract role is limited — 10% of recent awards are sub-grants, including roles as sub-recipient to Northwestern University on virology and prevention research; to the University of Illinois on space grant and dietary intervention projects; to Emory University on humanities research; and to Georgetown University on NASA planetary data visualization work.

DePaul's federal grant work is rooted in its status as a research university with established faculty in computer science, psychology, education, biology, and related fields. The university does not hold seats on government-wide IDIQs or GWACs; its funding flows through direct grants from federal research agencies, primarily NSF, NIH, Department of Education, and NASA. The two parent vehicle references in the source (a DoD Basic Ordering Agreement and a Navy indefinite delivery contract) appear minimal and represent outliers in an otherwise research-grant-dominated profile. Subrecipients on DePaul-led grants include regional universities and community organizations, positioning DePaul as a convening institution for collaborative research networks rather than as a systems integrator or service provider.