Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & Clark College, a private nonprofit institution based in Portland, Oregon, operates as a federal grant recipient and occasional contract awardee, with 99% of its recent federal activity as prime recipient rather than subrecipient. The institution competes in full-and-open federal funding with no set-aside designations across its award portfolio.

Lewis & Clark's federal footprint divides sharply between contract tuition reimbursements and research grants. On the contract side, the college receives small firm-fixed-price delivery orders from the Naval Education and Training Command to cover tuition and fees for military personnel attending the college — four awards since 2021 ranging from $26,852.50 to $31,752, most recently a $31,752 order for the spring 2026 semester completed June 1, 2026. This represents minimal contract activity; the college sits on three Navy indefinite delivery contracts but neither pursues nor holds significant GWAC, BPA, or agency-wide IDIQ vehicles. By contrast, the federal grant footprint is substantial and diverse. The National Science Foundation has funded 27 awards including LEAPS-MPS basic research grants in biochemistry, quantum physics, and ecology; a $249,684 project grant for ultracold atom quantum simulation (August 2024–July 2026); a $279,966 STEM Education grant (CFDA 47.076) for interactive medical imaging modules in undergraduate coursework (October 2023–September 2026); a $633,278 Data Science Capacity Building award (CFDA 47.070) focused on biodiversity and conservation education (September 2021–August 2024); and a $231,060 five-year collaborative research award on tropical forest regeneration dynamics across Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Panama (September 2023–August 2028). The National Institute of General Medical Sciences funded a $414,000 Biomedical Research and Research Training grant (CFDA 93.859) on lipid metabolism and lysosome-related organelles (August 2024–July 2027). The Internal Revenue Service has awarded the college 23 grants under the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic program (CFDA 21.008) to operate a legal clinic providing tax representation and education to low-income taxpayers; multiple three-year LITC grants ran through December 2024 and 2027, with the most recent spanning January 2025–December 2027. The National Endowment for the Humanities funded a $331,528 special collections preservation grant (October 2021–September 2023) to rebuild the college's library archives including Indigenous, Asian, and Vietnamese community materials, and a smaller humanities research grant on gun culture demographics (October 2023–September 2025). The Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education awarded a Project Amplify grant (January 2025–December 2026) addressing multilingual learning practices. The National Archives and Records Administration, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Science Foundation's Division of Emerging Frontiers also appear in the recent grant portfolio.

Customer concentration sits with the Naval Education and Training Command (28 awards, $351 thousand combined potential value, entirely tuition-reimbursement delivery orders) and the National Science Foundation (27 awards), which together account for roughly 40% of the 138 total awards in the source data. The gap between award count and dollar concentration reflects the structure: Navy awards are numerous but individually small; NSF and NIGMS grants carry larger dollar values. Five awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating modest recompete exposure.

Lewis & Clark's primary capability framing is undergraduate and graduate education paired with faculty-led research in STEM disciplines — biology, chemistry, physics, computer science — and professional training through law clinics. The institution integrates paid undergraduate research experiences and course-based research into most NSF awards, with stated outreach activities involving biotechnology industry partnerships in Portland and regional community engagement. No subcontractor relationship appears in the source; the college operates as a direct federal recipient, not as a sub-recipient to another prime entity, with one exception — a June 2023 sub-award from the Oregon Health Authority under a Scholars for a Healthy Oregon Initiative-like scholarship program.

This is not a contractor profile; Lewis & Clark competes in federal higher-education funding, research grants, and public service programming. It holds no prime federal contract vehicles and does not bid on Defense, civilian IT, or services IDIQs. For federal contractors, Lewis & Clark is relevant as a potential research partner, educational vendor for military tuition programs, or M&A target only if the acquiring entity seeks to operate an accredited educational institution with established federal research relationships.