Hawai`i Pacific University

Hawai`i Pacific University, doing business as Hawaii Pacific University, is a tax-exempt private nonprofit minority-serving institution and Native Hawaiian servicing institution based in Honolulu, Hawaii that acts as a federal grant recipient (92% of recent awards as prime recipient) across STEM research, workforce development, and educational programming. The institution does not hold federal contracts; its federal footprint is exclusively grant-funded.

HPU's customer concentration sits heavily with civilian research and education agencies. The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration leads by potential value (25 awards, $346 thousand combined potential value), followed by the Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard, the National Science Foundation (15 awards), and the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (10 awards). The Department of the Army anchors the award count at 86 awards, though dollar values are not specified in that category—the discrepancy between volume (Army leads) and stated potential value (NOAA leads) suggests Army awards are small in magnitude and likely consist of educational services or tuition support. The top five funding agencies account for 72% of recent award volume.

HPU's grant portfolio centers on marine research, environmental science, STEM education, and workforce development aligned with its island location and minority-serving institutional mission. Recent prime grant examples include a $999,940 Department of Defense Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering award (CFDA 12.630) effective May 1, 2026 to establish an integrated energy and advanced power systems laboratory; a $1.843 million Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Community Project Funding award (CFDA 17.289) for workforce development and community enhancement in Hawaii, effective July 1, 2025; a $502,819 National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology project grant (CFDA 47.074) awarded August 15, 2025 for a two-year ecosystem-scale study of sea-level rise and methane dynamics in coastal wetlands; and a $243,780 NSF Division of Chemistry Mathematical and Physical Sciences award (CFDA 47.049) under the Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways (LEAPS) initiative for photoredox-based rare earth element separation methods, effective September 1, 2025. HPU also manages the Center for Marine Debris Research, which supports NOAA and NIST cooperative agreements on marine plastic pollution measurement, polymer characterization, and reference material development.

In its sub-recipient role, HPU participates in NIH-funded research through the University of Hawaii's Hawaii INBRE V Program, receives subawards from Emory University for research professional development, and collaborates with Baylor University and The Queen's Medical Center on biomedical research. Sub-award activity across all federal sources has grown; the source lists 17 sub-awards across recent fiscal years, with recurring partnerships under the Hawaii INBRE V umbrellas.

HPU's grant work spans five-year STEM scholarship and retention programs (NSF STEM Success for Economically Challenged Students, January 2025 through December 2029, supporting 11 low-income undergraduate STEM majors), secondary teacher preparation in culturally responsive STEM pedagogy (NSF Project STEM High-Achieving Kumu Akamai, August 2024), nursing faculty workforce expansion (Bureau of Health Professionals Nurse Faculty Loan Program, July 2023 through June 2099), and institution-building partnerships focused on geographically isolated institutions conducting environmental research (NSF EPIIC PARADISE collaborative, September 2024 through August 2027, with Paul Smith's College and University of the Virgin Islands). The institution also received significant pandemic-response formula grants from the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education in 2021–2022 ($4.185 million SAIHE, $3.048 million MSI formula grant).

Activity has grown in recent years—five awards in 2022 and 2023 to sixteen in 2025, with two awards recorded in 2026 to date. Eight awards carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months and face recompete. HPU does not hold parent vehicles or GSA Schedules; all federal work flows through direct agency relationships and subaward arrangements under prime grantee umbrellas.