Midwestern University

Midwestern University, a private non-profit graduate institution headquartered in Glendale, Arizona with a satellite campus in Downers Grove, Illinois, delivers medical education and tuition support to Navy and Marine Corps personnel as a prime federal contractor (97% of recent awards) under firm fixed-price delivery orders and basic ordering agreements, alongside a smaller federal research grant portfolio spanning health sciences, veterinary medicine, and biomedical research.

Midwestern University's federal footprint is dominated by Navy medical education contracts. The Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery accounts for 177 delivery orders with a combined potential value of $33.3 million—roughly 89% of the university's total contract potential value across all federal sources. Work under two master basic ordering agreements (BOA N0018910GZ015, 120 task orders worth $23.9 million, and BOA N0018920GZ017, 71 task orders worth $13.6 million, both running through June 2030) supports tuition and fees for Navy and Marine Corps personnel attending medical training programs at the university's Arizona and Illinois campuses. Individual delivery orders range from roughly $12,000 to $500,000 and are structured as firm fixed-price contracts with no set-asides. The broader Department of the Navy customer base adds 20 additional awards valued at $4.2 million. Outside Navy medical education, the university serves the Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (11 awards), the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professionals (11 awards), and the National Institutes of Health across multiple institutes including the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

On the research grant side, Midwestern University acts as prime recipient on biomedical and veterinary research projects. Recent examples include a $553,721 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Project Grant (CFDA 93.853) awarded September 2026 to evaluate a novel manganese porphyrin compound in a Drosophila model of Parkinson's disease; a $489,777 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Project Grant (CFDA 93.865) awarded July 2026 to identify signaling molecules during fertilization using a sea star model; a $773,300 NINDS Project Grant (CFDA 93.853) awarded September 2025 to investigate anti-prion compound elacridar for protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases; a $521,992 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Project Grant (CFDA 93.113) awarded September 2025 on phthalate-induced reproductive toxicity; and a $524,878.78 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cooperative agreement (CFDA 10.028) awarded September 2025 on methods development for chronic wasting disease in elk. The university also holds cooperative agreements and formula grants from USDA's Institute of Food Production and Sustainability for one-health veterinary research spanning zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and vector-borne disease management at its College of Veterinary Medicine. Additional research awards span the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (sleep apnea and cholinergic modulation), the National Science Foundation (bipedal walking biomechanics and primate sensory evolution), the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (practice-based clinical research training in dental medicine), and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (vocal fold injury and healing).

The university acts as sub-recipient on a smaller set of grants, including National Institutes of Health-funded cognitive impairment research with the University of Pittsburgh, a translational genomics project with TGen on shelter medicine and canine epidemiology, a bioengineered larynx implant study with Mayo Clinic Arizona, a schistosomiasis vaccine candidate project with PAI Life Sciences, a dental composite materials study with the University of Colorado, and a Pseudomonas aeruginosa study with Northwestern University.

Activity has remained relatively stable over the past five years (17–19 awards annually from 2022–2024, declining to 14 in 2025 and 11 in 2026). Nine awards reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, representing potential recompete opportunities and exposure for the university. The university competes exclusively full-and-open on both contract and grant work, with no set-aside designations across the visible footprint. Place of performance for all Navy contract work occurs in Glendale, Arizona; grant research occurs at both Arizona and Illinois campuses depending on the program.