Madison Area Technical College District

Madison Area Technical College District, doing business as Matc, is a state-controlled community college in Madison, Wisconsin, operating as a child entity of the Wisconsin Technical College System Board. Matc receives federal grants directly as a prime recipient and participates in sub-award arrangements, with no federal contract prime or subcontract activity in recent years. The institution focuses on workforce development, postsecondary education, and STEM pathway expansion, funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, and Department of Agriculture.

Matc's federal grant portfolio spans 95 prime awards and 67 sub-awards across 162 total awards (59% prime, 41% sub), with combined potential value of $415 thousand and $139.1 million in obligated dollars. Recent prime grant activity centers on NSF STEM education and workforce development initiatives. In October 2026, NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Matc $749,888 to expand undergraduate research experiences in STEM through industry mentorship and advanced technologies, embedding course-based and mentored research into STEM curricula and co-curricular activities across the two-year college through September 2029. Matc also received a $474,977 NSF grant (CFDA 47.076) running through June 2028 for biotechnology career pathway development, delivering dual-credit curriculum and hands-on lab activities for high school and two-year college students with targeted outreach to rural areas. An NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships award of $399,168 funds the COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: EPIIC collaborative, where Matc partners with Tuskegee University, Youngstown State University, and other institutions to build industry partnerships, establish a Center for the Future of Work, and create workforce pathways in emerging technologies through August 2027.

In the postsecondary education grant space, the Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education funds three TRIO Student Support Services awards to Matc: $283,258 and $272,364 (two separate awards) supporting comprehensive student support services for disadvantaged students including low-income, first-generation, and disabled students through September 2026; these awards deliver tutoring, advising, career counseling, and financial aid assistance. The Department of Education also funded a $749,888 CCAMPIS grant running through September 2026 for child care access and campus-based services. NSF's Division of Polar Programs awarded Matc a collaborative research grant for operation and maintenance of the Antarctic Automatic Weather Station network, collecting and quality-controlling meteorological data through August 2027. The Economic Development Administration funded a Tech Hubs initiative ("ABC Pathways") for $474,977 through September 2029, building biohealth workforce pathways through employer partnerships, curriculum alignment, apprenticeships, and wraparound support services.

Top federal grant customers by award count are the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (34 awards), the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (19 awards), the Department of Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (18 awards), and the National Science Foundation (12 awards), accounting for 57% of awards. Top customers by potential-value share include NASA Shared Services Center ($174 thousand from one award), Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 12 ($115 thousand across nine awards), and Department of the Army Wisconsin Army National Guard ($54 thousand across three awards). Sub-award work flows primarily through the Wisconsin Technical College System Board as prime grantee and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, with recurring NSLP and CACFP food nutrition sub-awards dating from 2024 forward, sub-awards in capacity building, student success, career prep, and high-school-to-college transition under WTCS Board pass-through grants, and specialized sub-awards including a $749,888 sub-grant from the University of Wisconsin System for recruitment and mentoring of underrepresented minority STEM scholars and a $399,168 sub-award from the Research Foundation for the State University of New York for microelectronics manufacturing certificate infrastructure development under the CHIPS Act framework.

Award activity accelerated sharply from two awards each in 2022 and 2023 to 25 in 2024 and 34 in 2025, with 15 recorded in 2026 to date. Four awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing minimal near-term recompete exposure. Matc's federal footprint reflects a two-year institution positioning: workforce development and STEM education in biotechnology, energy, microelectronics, and biohealth sectors; student support and access programs for low-income and underrepresented populations; and faculty-industry partnership models designed as scalable templates for replication across the community college network.