Montana State University

Montana State University's Office of Sponsored Programs, a U.S. state government entity and educational institution headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, acts as a prime recipient of federal research grants and research-supported cooperative agreements across 213 distinct customer agencies, with no set-aside designations. The office administers a diversified portfolio spanning basic research, applied research, STEM education, and workforce development across space science, agriculture, health sciences, environmental science, and engineering disciplines.

Montana State University's customer concentration is diffuse. The National Science Foundation leads by award count at 341 awards, followed by the Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (336 awards combined across multiple tallies) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Shared Services Center (280 awards, $73.6 million combined potential value). The Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health accounts for 88 awards. This spread across 213 agencies reflects a land-grant research university's broad mission rather than dependence on a single federal customer; no single agency comprises the majority of the portfolio.

Recent activity shows award volume declining from 183 awards in 2024 to 116 in 2025, with only 3 awards in 2027 in the source data—a trajectory that reflects either the lag in data reporting at a large institution or the natural concentration of awards in historical periods. Within the next twenty-four months, 162 awards face ultimate completion, representing $50.9 million in potential value exposed to recompete or renewal.

Representative work spans concrete domains: biofilm prevention in International Space Station water systems ($170,062 purchase order from NASA Shared Services Center, awarded February 2026); quantum computing capabilities ($31.5 million Air Force Research Laboratory definitive contract for Q-CORE testbed expansion, July 2025); STEM engagement and education outreach ($3.41 million NASA cooperative agreement for diverse student engagement, April 2025); and agricultural research including durum wheat breeding ($500,000 USDA AFRI award, January 2026) and avian influenza research in bovine organoids ($796,000 USDA NIFA award, March 2026). Montana State also receives formula funding as a land-grant institution under Hatch Act ($2.03 million, October 2025), Smith-Lever Extension funding ($5.875 million, October 2025), and EFNEP programming ($388,385, October 2025).

The office operates as a prime recipient on all awards; it does not compete for federal contracts as a prime contractor under GSA or agency-wide vehicles. Instead, Montana State University receives grants, cooperative agreements, and research contracts directly from federal agencies. Three named subcontract relationships appear in the source: Montana State serves as a sub-recipient to the University of Montana on a vaccine development project (December 2025), to HRL Laboratories on cybersecurity modeling work (October 2025), and to Leidos on research services (April 2025). Conversely, Montana State has engaged subgrantees including Fort Peck Community College (tribal land-grant institution) on the CONNECT Mentoring Hub engineering education project (July 2026) and the University of Vermont on high pathogenicity avian influenza research (March 2026).

On SCI-reportable federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold, Montana State reported $8.9 million in prime invoicing across FY2023–FY2025 (FY2024 peak at $4 million), with a median government-paid rate of $162.54/hr across service labor and a 10th-to-90th percentile range from $89.35/hr to $295.69/hr. SCI workforce scaled from 0 FTEs in FY2022 to a peak of 13.4 FTEs in FY2024, declining to 3.7 FTEs in FY2025. The office engaged subcontractors on an average of 13% of contractor hours across prime contracts, naming 7 distinct subs. SCI data represents only service contracts above the $150,000 threshold and excludes goods, micro-purchases, classified work, and the vast preponderance of Montana State's research grant activity, which sits outside SCI scope.

Montana State University competes full-and-open; its federal footprint reflects a land-grant research university's core mission of basic and applied research, graduate and undergraduate education, and extension outreach—not federal procurement contracting.