Lehigh University

Lehigh University, operating as the Office of Research, serves as a tax-exempt private research institution based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, executing federal research awards as a prime recipient (91% of recent awards) and subcontractor across a portfolio spanning contracts and grants in engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, and social science. The university operates across multiple locations, including its primary research facility in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, and does not compete under set-aside categories—all work is full-and-open across the federal funding landscape.

Lehigh's capability footprint centers on fundamental and applied research spanning materials science and engineering, energy systems, computational methods, biomedical sciences, and infrastructure resilience. Recent representative prime contract work includes a $2.97 million definitive contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center (awarded September 2025) for research on multi-sensor snow mass and melt timing estimation using microwave methods; a $124,500 Other Transaction Agreement with Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (September 2024) for broadband optical limiter development; and a $110,000 resilience design contract with Naval Facilities Engineering Command (September 2024). The university's grant portfolio is substantially larger, anchored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the dominant funder, with recent notable awards including a $2.015 million NSF Emerging Frontiers Research Initiative (September 2025) for biocomputation using cortical neuronal organoids, a $1.76 million DMREF award (October 2025) for materials under extreme detonation conditions, and a $1.082 million NSF Integrative Activities grant (August 2024) to build a research translation ecosystem for workforce development in the research enterprise.

Customer concentration is heavily dominated by NSF (398 awards across the recent portfolio), followed by the Department of Energy (43 awards), Department of the Navy and Office of Naval Research combined (69 awards), and Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (26 awards). This distribution reflects Lehigh's positioning as a research university competing primarily in federal research and development funding rather than federal contracting, with NSF Basic Research and STEM education funding constituting the largest share. The top five customer agencies account for approximately 46% of recent award count, though dollar concentration is sparse given the portfolio's foundation in competitive research grants rather than large-dollar contract vehicles.

Lehigh maintains a small but active seat on at least two indefinite delivery contract vehicles—Indefinite Delivery Contract N0016799D0037 (2 task orders) and Indefinite Delivery Contract SP470117D1134 (1 task order)—though the primary vehicle activity reflects research grant and cooperative agreement mechanisms rather than task-order-based procurement.

Activity has remained steady with 53 awards in 2022, rising to 102 in 2024, then declining to 52 awards in 2025 and 16 through mid-2026. Seventy-four awards (combined potential value $1.4 million) face completion within the next twenty-four months, representing a moderate recompete exposure window. In its subcontractor role, Lehigh appears in the grant ecosystem primarily as a sub-recipient collaborating with university primes—recent sub-awardees include work with the University of Delaware on subject-specific finite element modeling, collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania on data harmonization for Alzheimer's disease research, and partnerships with Temple University on GIS and fire investigation training curriculum development. The university also subcontracts to other institutions as prime awardee, particularly for specialized research tasks in computational modeling, experimental validation, and field work.

The university's corporate structure carries a named subsidiary, the Manufacturers Resource Center (a non-profit), which extends Lehigh's community outreach and economic development mission beyond direct research execution. Federal grant activity reflects a comprehensive research ecosystem spanning basic science discovery, materials and energy innovation, biomedical research, and workforce development programming. No federal contracting vehicles (GWACs, BPAs, or agency-wide IDIQs) carry Lehigh as a prime contractor, positioning the university fundamentally as a research grant recipient rather than as a procurement vehicle for other federal contractors seeking teaming arrangements.