Macquarie University

Macquarie University, an Australian non-profit educational institution, operates as a federal research recipient and prime contractor, executing defense and military research programs funded by the Department of Army, Department of Navy, Department of Air Force, and Defense Health Agency through grants, definitive contracts, and Other Transaction Agreements. The university competes on full-and-open research solicitations without set-asides; all recent awards carry no set-aside designation and result from merit-based technical selection.

Macquarie University's federal work centers on basic and applied research in genomics, synthetic biology, materials science, and biomedical applications with defense relevance. Recent prime contract work includes a $764,271.81 firm fixed-price definitive contract from Army RDECOM awarded September 2023 for genetic tool development to advance black soldier fly as a synthetic biology platform under the ITC IPAC Research & Development Broad Agency Announcement (completion September 2026); a $149,308 Other Transaction Agreement from RDECOM awarded February 2026 for prototype development of a Dismounted Position and Navigation Sensor Automatic Steering and Position Navigation Interface and Boot Mounted Unit Robustness Task (completion February 2027); and a $149,993.92 purchase order from RDECOM awarded September 2021 for functional genomics research related to microbial polyurethane and metal degradation (completed March 2024). On the grant side, the Defense Health Agency funded a $659,922 project grant for gene therapy research on ALS treatment through nuclear TDP-43 supplementation (September 2025 through September 2027) and a $749,995 project grant for development of gene therapies for targeted TDP-43 protein degradation to treat ALS (September 2024 through August 2026). Macquarie University also holds Air Force Research Laboratory project grants for work on categorical foundations of differentiation (awarded November 2023, running through November 2028) and fiber laser research (awarded September 2023, running through September 2026), Office of Naval Research grants for shipboard damage control research and the Australasian Wave Science Conference (KOZWAVES 2026), and an Army RDECOM cooperative agreement for functional genomics and evolution to harness microbial plastic biodegradation (awarded July 2023, completion October 2027).

Customer concentration is dispersed across defense research and development agencies. The top five customer agencies account for 76% of award count: Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (8 awards), Office of Naval Research (7 awards), Army RDECOM (6 awards, $1.2 million combined potential value), Air Force (4 awards), and Defense Health Agency (4 awards). Dollar concentration aligns with award count, with Army RDECOM accounting for $1.2 million of the $1.3 million in combined potential value. The university acts as a prime recipient or prime contractor on 92% of recent federal awards; sub-award activity includes a sub-grant role with Seattle Children's Hospital on a chronic pancreatitis pain course implementation and evaluation (awarded October 2024) and prior geomorphological and remote sensing research collaboration under a University of North Carolina at Wilmington prime grant (awarded September 2022).

Activity has declined year over year — six awards in 2022 declining to one award in 2026 — with eight awards carrying completion dates inside the next twenty-four months and combined potential value of $914 thousand facing recompete exposure. The university's work is performed in Australia and focuses on scientific and technical research, with primary NAICS framing in physical, engineering, and life sciences research and development and general science and technology basic research by PSC.