Henry Ford Health System

Henry Ford Health System, a tax-exempt integrated healthcare provider headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, operates hospitals, physician practices, and research infrastructure as the prime recipient of federal biomedical research grants and the prime contractor on a clinical research network delivery order, with 63% of recent awards held as prime contracts or grants.

Henry Ford's federal footprint is concentrated in biomedical research and clinical trial delivery, particularly cancer research and translational medicine. The organization delivers clinical research network operations and patient recruitment for the National Cancer Institute under a $23.6 million delivery order awarded September 2024 on the Cancer Study Cohort Recruitment indefinite delivery vehicle, with performance through September 2027 on a cost-no-fee basis across Detroit facilities. Substantive recent grant work includes a $3.347 million Defense Health Agency (CFDA 12.420) award for digital wrist tomosynthesis technology translation for osteoporosis screening (September 2026–September 2030), a $5.092 million Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (CFDA 93.243) award for the Detroit HCV Elimination Project integrating hospital-based and street-based services (September 2025–September 2027) with Community Health and Social Services Center, Inc. as a sub-recipient, and a $500 thousand Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professionals (CFDA 93.884) award for a family medicine residency program in street medicine curriculum design and implementation (July 2026–June 2031). The Health Resources and Services Administration also funded Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital's virtual patient monitoring system ($1.0 million, August 2022–March 2026) and Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital's cardiac catheterization laboratory equipment upgrade ($1.0 million, August 2022–July 2025) through congressionally directed spending construction awards. Henry Ford acts as a sub-recipient on Defense Health Agency Military Medical Research and Development grants targeting prostate cancer resistance mechanisms, pancreatic cancer progression, ovarian cancer mitochondrial metabolism, and Langerhans cell histiocytosis therapeutics, with individual awards ranging from $292 thousand to $912 thousand across 2024–2028 performance periods.

Customer concentration sits with the National Institutes of Health ecosystem, which accounts for 39% of recent awards by count. Within NIH, the National Cancer Institute (36 awards, $1.01 billion combined potential value) dominates absolute dollar value; the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (28 awards), National Institute of Mental Health (23 awards), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (21 awards) round out the top tier by volume. The top five funding agencies together account for roughly 39% of awards. Defense Health Agency and the Army Medical Command appear in the potential-value ranking with smaller award counts, driven by concentrated multi-million-dollar research grants. Activity has grown from 21 awards in 2022 to a peak of 59 in 2024, with 45 awards recorded in 2025 and 21 in 2026 (partial year). Fourteen awards totaling $23.6 million face completion within the next twenty-four months and will require recompete action.

Henry Ford operates predominantly as a prime recipient on federal grants (63% of awards), reflecting its role as a research-intensive healthcare system. The organization holds a seat on the Cancer Study Cohort Recruitment vehicle with five task orders worth $47.8 million combined value, anchoring its contract work. SCI-reported federal service contracts show $2.4 million in invoiced revenue in FY2022 across 11.8 FTEs; subsequent fiscal years show minimal SCI-reportable activity, indicating that most Henry Ford work is structured as grants or research contracts rather than service contracts above the $150,000 threshold. When SCI-reportable, Henry Ford government-paid rates have run around $18.63/hr median (range $17.55–$19.71/hr), with sub-hours averaging 22% of prime contract labor, suggesting selective use of subcontractors for specialized research tasks.

Henry Ford operates subsidiaries including W A Foote Memorial Hospital and Alliance Health & Life Insurance Co. The organization participates extensively as a sub-recipient on cooperative agreements and grants from academic and research institutions, including Wayne State University, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin System, and others, typically contributing clinical sites, patient recruitment, data collection, specimen preparation, or research labor under principal investigator leadership at the prime institutions. Named sub-award primes include Vanderbilt University Medical Center on a respiratory virus surveillance contract, and multiple CFDA 93.243 (substance-abuse prevention) and CFDA 93.244 (primary health services) sub-awards from the State of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for HIV prevention, sickle cell services, HCV treatment consultation, and other safety-net clinical programs. Henry Ford's research mission centers on cancer immunotherapy, cardiovascular outcomes, metabolic and substance-use epidemiology, and maternal-child health equity across a diverse Detroit metropolitan population.