Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute

Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, a non-profit research division of Hennepin Healthcare System Inc. (a local government hospital entity based in Minneapolis, Minnesota), operates as both a prime recipient and subcontractor on federal research grants and contracts, with roughly equal splits between prime (49% of 228 recent awards) and sub work (51%). The institute competes predominantly full-and-open without set-asides, conducting biomedical research, clinical trials, data system maintenance, and health services research for federal agencies across health, infectious disease, kidney disease, aging, and substance-use intervention domains.

HHRI's customer concentration sits heavily with the National Institutes of Health and sister HHS agencies. The top five customer institutes account for 53% of recent awards by count: the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (42 awards), National Institute on Aging (22 awards), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (19 awards, $37.1 million combined potential value), National Institute on Drug Abuse (19 awards), and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (18 awards, $27.4 million combined potential value). By potential value, the Health Resources and Services Administration dominates: HRSA alone anchors $98.6 million across four awards, driven by the $7.999 million Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients bridge contract (awarded March 2026, completion March 2027) and the $14.5 million United States Renal Data System Coordinating Center support contract (awarded March 2024, ceiling through March 2029). HHRI also executes grants from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Defense Health Agency, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Aging, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute on malaria vaccine development, kidney transplant decision support, HIV and aging, e-cigarette addiction, diabetes management for homeless individuals, and frostbite research.

Activity has grown year over year—from 14 awards in 2022 to 58 in 2024—then moderated to 20 in 2025 and 9 through June 2026. Nine awards (combined potential value $8 million) face completion within the next twenty-four months, representing moderate recompete exposure. HHRI's prime-contract footprint includes definitive contracts for scientific registry support with HRSA and renal data system maintenance with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, alongside grant awards from NIAID, NIDA, the Defense Health Agency, and the National Institute on Aging. Representative prime work includes $661,037 in CFDA 93.855 (Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) funding five-year malaria vaccine research beginning May 2026; $1.999 million from the Defense Health Agency under CFDA 12.420 (Military Medical Research and Development) for the Frostbite Multicenter Observational Trial; and grants supporting diabetes management for homeless populations, kidney transplant candidate decision support, and vaccine immunity in persons living with HIV.

As a subcontractor, HHRI delivers clinical trial site management, biostatistical analysis, and researcher participation on a broad array of leading-university prime grants. Recent sub-award work includes biostatistics support for the CAVALIER trial (hemorrhagic shock resuscitation) through University of Pittsburgh; site participation in the Transitions Clinic Network (post-incarceration opioid treatment and primary care) through Yale; vaccine development for heroin and fentanyl through the University of Montana; surveillance of acute respiratory viral illness through Vanderbilt University Medical Center; and awareness-with-paralysis intervention research through Washington University. HHRI also contributes to NIH multi-site epidemiology efforts and learning health system initiatives led by the University of Minnesota, University of Washington, and other academic research centers.

SCI-reported invoicing on prime federal service contracts totaled $26 million across FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $9 million across 38.5 FTEs; FY2023: $8.2 million across 31.2 FTEs; FY2024: $8.9 million across 32.7 FTEs). The SCI dataset shows that on federal service contracts, median government-paid rates run around $126/hr, with senior labor pricing through roughly $134/hr. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractor labor accounts for an average of 5% of total contractor hours, with 14 named subcontractors reported. On its prime contracts, HHRI builds the bulk of its delivery internally; when it subs, common partners include academic institutions (University of Washington, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Regents of the University of California, San Francisco) providing analytic support, biostatistics, and investigator oversight. The institute holds a seat on the Indefinite Delivery Contract W81XWH16D0024 (three task orders recorded) and competes primarily on NIH grant solicitations and HHS contract vehicles without geographic or socioeconomic set-asides.