Michigan Technological University

Michigan Technological University, a public research institution headquartered in Houghton, Michigan, delivers research and development services across defense, energy, materials science, environmental science, and space applications to federal agencies as a prime recipient and contractor, competing without small business set-asides across full-and-open and unrestricted procurement vehicles.

Michigan Tech operates as a prime awardee on 1,751 of its 1,878 recorded federal awards (93%), positioning the institution as a direct research performer rather than a subcontractor. The university holds no SBA designations and does not compete under set-aside categories; its federal footprint reflects open competition and agency unrestricted procurement. Recent activity spans 1,878 awards with combined potential value of $286.5 million, though obligated dollars total $861.5 million—indicating substantial reperformance and funding modification activity. Awards per year increased from 62 in 2022 to 121 in 2024, though 2025–2026 activity (103 awards) suggests recompete pressure: 104 awards worth $52.6 million in combined potential value complete within the next twenty-four months.

The university's customer concentration is distributed across 156 agencies, with the top five accounting for roughly 47% of award count. The National Science Foundation leads with 367 awards; the Department of the Army, NASA Shared Services Center, Department of the Air Force, and Department of Energy follow. By potential value, NASA Shared Services Center anchors the portfolio ($49.3 million across 168 awards), followed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ($35.1 million, 34 awards), the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory ($21.7 million, 23 awards), and Army Materiel Command R&D and Engineering Command ($6.4 million, 17 awards). This divergence signals small, frequent NASA science grants alongside larger defense engineering and materials contracts.

Michigan Tech's concrete capability portfolio centers on federally-funded research and development across defense systems, space science, energy, materials engineering, and environmental monitoring. Representative work includes a $28.4 million Army Combat Capabilities Development Command contract for technical and engineering services supporting ground vehicle survivability and maneuver support (awarded September 2024, completion September 2027), combining work at the Keweenaw Research Center with subcontractors Lockheed Martin, Systima Technologies, Concurrent Technologies, and Detroit Defense on vehicle base kits and adaptive mobility platforms. The university holds a $4.44 million Air Force Research Laboratory cost-no-fee contract for computationally-driven next-generation carbon-carbon composite material development (awarded May 2024, completion May 2027), subcontracting experimental studies to Florida State University and Columbia University and molecular dynamics simulations to ReaxFF Consulting. A $3.04 million Office of Naval Research definitive contract funds kinematic and RF behavior simulations of maritime surface vessel engagements using generative AI and expert models (awarded March 2026, completion March 2028). On the civilian side, Michigan Tech received a $462 thousand NSF Project Grant for research into hydrolysis and oxidation degradation in vitrimers (awarded August 2026, completion July 2029), a $750 thousand NSF International Research Experiences for Students award for developing building materials from sargassum-plastic pollution in the Caribbean (awarded October 2025, completion June 2030), and a $1.1 million Army Basic Scientific Research grant for midwave infrared single-photon detection via quantum non-demolition technology (awarded September 2025, completion December 2027), with sub-awardees at Saint Louis University, Pennsylvania State University, and Vanderbilt University.

Michigan Tech sits on at least five high-volume Army parent vehicles, including Indefinite Delivery Contracts F0160079D0285 (57 task orders), DAAE0781G4006 (23 task orders), and DAAE0787GR004 (19 task orders), and Basic Ordering Agreements DAAE0783GR007 (24 task orders) and DAAE0785GR007 (20 task orders). The university holds a $6.34 million DARPA Other Transaction IDV awarded October 15, 2025 (multiple award, emerging technology R&D), and a $7.84 million Office of the Secretary of Defense OTA for Vehicle Integrated Power Kit prototype development (awarded March 7, 2025). These vehicles fund task orders for ground vehicle systems research, propulsion development, and emerging defense technologies.

In its subcontractor role, Michigan Tech performs work for Lockheed Martin on vehicle soft-kill system integration, Leidos on Treasury IRS cloud engineering, Booz Allen Hamilton on DoD cyber operations, and additional primes including North Dakota State University on epoxy polyurethane coatings research, Triad National Security on Los Alamos National Laboratory R&D, and Purdue University on Lake Michigan shoreline response modeling. Across SCI-reportable prime service contracts, the sub-hours share averages 0%, indicating Michigan Tech builds its own delivery teams for federal services work rather than relying on subcontractors. SCI-reported invoiced revenue totals $571 thousand in FY2024 across 2.3 FTEs, with government-paid median hourly rates around $217.79/hr (10th percentile $56.68/hr; 90th percentile $291.66/hr). The SCI dataset is minimal and represents only a small slice of the university's far larger federal research and development footprint; the vast majority of Michigan Tech's federal activity flows through research grant and contract mechanisms outside the SCI reporting threshold.

Federal grant work is substantial and grounded in NSF Engineering, Biological Sciences, Geosciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, and NASA science programs. Michigan Tech acts as prime recipient on hundreds of project grants addressing materials science, environmental monitoring, renewable energy, climate modeling, AI and machine learning, autonomous systems, workforce development, and fundamental research in space science. Recent examples include NSF awards for vitrimers durability, plastic flow modeling in the US and Caribbean, thermoplastic composite manufacturing with German and NASA partners, wireless power transfer over distances, and advanced power grid fault diagnosis using machine learning. The institution also participates as sub-recipient on NSF I-Corps Hub work, Michigan Space Grant Consortium activities, EPA environmental finance center programming, and NIH biomedical and cardiovascular research initiatives. The university's grant work emphasizes student training, peer-reviewed publication, open-source software, and knowledge transfer to federal agency partners and regional stakeholders.

Place of performance is primarily Houghton, Michigan (the main campus), with significant research infrastructure at the Keweenaw Research Center and distributed fieldwork sites in the Great Lakes region, Antarctica (ice-shelf research), Iceland (geomagnetic studies), and internationally (sargassum-plastic research in the Dominican Republic, microbial extremophile studies in Chile and Brazil). Several awards reference Ann Arbor, Michigan as a secondary location. The university maintains collaborative relationships with peer institutions including Colorado School of Mines, University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, Pennsylvania State University, and Vanderbilt University as sub-awardees on multi-institution federal research efforts.

Corporate structure shows Michigan Technological University as the parent entity with three named variants in the source data, all referring to the same public research institution. The university does not operate subsidiary contracting entities; awards flow directly through Michigan Tech as the recipient or prime contractor. Activity trajectory shows growth from 62 awards in 2022 to a peak of 121 in 2024, with a decline to 82 in 2025 and 21 recorded in the first eight weeks of 2026 (likely reflecting reporting lag). With 104 awards reaching completion in the next twenty-four months and representing a recompete opportunity, Michigan Tech faces moderate pipeline risk balanced by its established role as a trusted federal research performer across NSF, NASA, DoD, and energy agencies.