Kean University

Kean University's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is a federal grant recipient that delivers research services and educational programming focused on STEM workforce development, life sciences research, and institutional capacity building across 40 federal agencies, operating primarily as a prime recipient (86% of recent awards) with subsidiary participation in grant sub-awards.

Kean University, a public, minority-serving, Hispanic-serving institution located in Union, New Jersey, receives federal grants for applied research, workforce training, and educational infrastructure. The university competes in full-and-open federal grant competitions across science, education, and economic development categories; it does not hold federal contracts or IDVs. Recent prime grant work centers on three capability clusters: life sciences and agricultural research using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and biomedical analysis (a $200 thousand award from the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability under CFDA 10.310 to identify insect-repelling compounds in aspen bracket fungus, effective February 2026 through January 2029; a $234 thousand award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under CFDA 93.859 for real-time cell analysis instrumentation, awarded September 2025); STEM education and workforce development (a $455 thousand National Science Foundation Biological Sciences award under CFDA 47.074 for collaborative research on invasive species evolutionary dynamics, September 2025 through August 2028; a $500 thousand Department of Justice award under CFDA 16.525 for campus-based responses to gender-based violence, October 2024 through September 2028); and institutional strengthening and undergraduate research engagement (a National Science Foundation CREST award for computer science doctoral program development, January 2025; a $1 million Department of Labor workforce training award under CFDA 17.289 for employment and labor initiatives, February 2024 through January 2026).

Customer concentration among the top funders is moderate. The National Science Foundation leads by award count with 17 awards, followed by the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education with 14 awards, together representing 47% of recent awards. By potential-value ranking, the top-five agency grouping shifts slightly to emphasize the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration, Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, NSF, Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, collectively accounting for 67% of combined potential value. The discrepancy signals that NSF and Education awards cluster at moderate scale while some smaller agencies place larger individual grants.

Recent activity trends flat to declining: the award cadence moved from 12 awards in 2023 and 13 in 2024 to 8 in 2025 and 2 year-to-date through February 2026. Eleven awards carry ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure across education, workforce, and life sciences programs. In its sub-award footprint, Kean participates as a sub-recipient under prime grantees including Emory University (expanding minority-serving institution consultant networks), Partners of the Americas (bioeconomy and biodiversity research), the University of Wisconsin System (disability and Social Security policy analysis), the University of Texas at El Paso (Hispanic-serving computing alliance initiatives), and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety (environmental and public safety initiatives). Sub-award work involves data analysis, student recruitment and support, curriculum development, and research collaboration.

Kean University's grant-funded capability portfolio emphasizes hands-on undergraduate and graduate research training in STEM, with recurring themes of inclusion, equity, and responsiveness to underrepresented student populations. The School of Integrative Science and Technology serves as the institutional hub; faculty and students participate in projects spanning biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, forensic science, and materials science. The university also operates workforce development centers, including a small business development center and institutes for urban policy research and life science entrepreneurship, which anchor economic development and commercialization grants from federal agencies including the Economic Development Administration.