Fayetteville State University

Fayetteville State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and constituent of the University of North Carolina system, acts as a prime recipient of federal grants (97% of awards) across research, STEM workforce development, and student support services, competing on a full-and-open, non-set-aside basis. The university has received 272 federal awards totaling $10.6 million in combined potential value, with $410.8 million obligated across that portfolio, indicating significant execution against grant funding streams that span education, research, and workforce preparation.

FSU's customer base is heavily concentrated in federal education and research agencies. The top five customers by award count—the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (51 awards), the National Science Foundation (24 awards), the Department of the Army (20 awards), NASA Shared Services Center (19 awards, $3.6 million potential value), and the Air Force Air Education and Training Command (18 awards, $404 thousand potential value)—account for 49% of all awards. By potential value, NASA, the Army Training and Doctrine Command ($3.1 million), and Special Operations Command ($848 thousand) anchor the dollar ranking. The shift between award-count and dollar-value leaders reflects FSU's role as a high-volume recipient of smaller education and student-support grants alongside selective larger research cooperative agreements.

FSU's grant portfolio divides into three operational streams. Student support and institutional strengthening grants dominate by volume: TRIO Student Support Services (regular and specialized tracks for veterans and STEM students), GEAR UP college-readiness programming for 2,386 North Carolina sixth and seventh graders ($1.9 million from Education), Title III FUTURE Act institutional aid ($2.7 million from Education), McNair Scholars, Upward Bound Math and Science, and Educational Opportunity Centers. These awards target underrepresented and low-income student populations in the Southeast. Research grants, concentrated at NSF and NASA, fund applied artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, earth science and remote sensing (partnering with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center), host-pathogen biology, semiconductor research through consortium work, and clean energy training in the Fayetteville region. Recent examples include an $879 thousand NSF grant (CFDA 47.083) for host-pathogen antimicrobial-resistance research with UNC Wilmington as co-investigator (CFDA 47.083, August 2026), a $9.9 million Army grant for applied AI and contested logistics (CFDA 12.630, August 2026), and a $2.5 million NSF scholarship program for chemistry and materials science ($15,000 annual scholarships to 40 students, six-year performance). A third stream comprises health professions training: the Health Resources and Services Administration funded a $1.5 million advanced nursing education program for sexual assault nurse examiners (July 2024–June 2027), and a $2.41 million nursing student loan program. Additionally, FSU operates a Veterans Business Outreach Center ($385 thousand from the Small Business Administration) delivering entrepreneurship training to military-connected populations.

Activity has moderated in recent years, declining from 18 awards in 2022 to 4 in 2026 (year-to-date), though this reflects the source snapshot window rather than sustained trajectory; the most recent major award—the $9.9 million Army grant for applied AI research—was obligated in August 2026. Nineteen awards with combined potential value of $1.7 million reach completion in the next twenty-four months, representing recompete opportunity for competitors and funding cliff exposure for FSU. In its subcontractor role, FSU engages as a sub-recipient on research consortia led by UNC Chapel Hill (AI/machine learning support for data collection and analysis), NC State University (nuclear engineering research training), NC A&T (flood detection and Earth science data science), and UNC Charlotte (rural clean energy and social mobility research), as well as on North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services collegiate recovery expansion.

FSU's capability footprint centers on STEM education and research infrastructure development at a minority-serving institution, with institutional strengths in undergraduate research training, federal workforce-development program administration, and applied research in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, earth science, and biomanufacturing. The university competes on merit in open federal grant processes without set-aside advantages, leveraging its HBCU designation and minority-serving status as competitive positioning within merit-based research and education funding streams that prioritize underrepresented populations and institutional capacity building.