Montana State University

Montana State University, a U.S. state government entity and 1862 land grant college headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, provides research services, scientific laboratory testing, educational programs, and facility maintenance to federal agencies predominantly as a prime recipient and contractor (96% of 296 recent awards). MSU operates on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations across its federal footprint; the university's federal work clusters under NAICS categories for colleges and universities (48 awards), testing laboratories and services (32 awards), and scientific research support (NAICS code coverage spans administrative consulting and professional services), with program service codes weighted toward basic research across defense, space, and natural resources domains.

MSU's customer base is highly distributed across 48 distinct federal agencies with no single agency dominating dollars or volume. The top five agencies by award count account for 39% of recent awards: the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Idaho Region (31 awards, $304 thousand combined potential value) leads in frequency, followed by the Department of the Navy (27 awards), the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (23 awards), the Department of the Air Force (20 awards), and the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (15 awards, $199 thousand combined potential value). However, the potential-value rankings diverge sharply — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Center anchors the dollar distribution with 6 awards carrying $3.3 million combined potential value, while BLM Idaho, ARS, NOAA, and Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station round out the top five dollars-focused customers. This divergence signals frequent small task orders with multiple agencies and fewer, larger funded awards concentrated in space research.

MSU holds positions on five named parent vehicles: an Indefinite Delivery Contract (F0160079D0291) with 19 task orders, a Blanket Purchase Agreement (INL09PA00414) with 19 task orders and $5 thousand combined potential value, a Basic Ordering Agreement (N0018919GZ001) with 7 task orders and $34 thousand combined potential value, an Indefinite Delivery Contract (N0001484K0309) with 6 task orders, and a Blanket Purchase Agreement (140L2619A0002) with 5 task orders and $38 thousand combined potential value. Representative prime work includes a $150,000 firm-fixed-price purchase order from NOAA for commercialization and interagency coordination support services (awarded September 26, 2024, completing March 31, 2025); a $250,000 single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement with BLM Idaho Region for a five-year seed testing laboratory program (April 4, 2024, through March 31, 2029); and a $48,804 purchase order from NOAA for light detection and ranging (LIDAR) hyperspectral microscopy research and data processing supporting harmful algal bloom reconnaissance (awarded July 7, 2022). MSU also holds prime federal grants as a recipient, including a cooperative agreement from the USDA Central Program Planning Coordination for barley pest initiative research (awarded September 1, 2025, completing November 30, 2027) and a cooperative agreement from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service on local foods production and supply chain resilience (awarded September 30, 2024, completing September 29, 2029).

Award volume has tracked uneven in recent years — five awards in 2021, declining to two in 2023, then rising to nine in 2024 — with only one award recorded for the current calendar year. The combined potential value across all 296 awards stands at $32.4 million against $65.2 million in combined obligations (201% of potential value), indicating that realized invoiced work significantly outpaces posted ceiling values. Only one award faces ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months. In its subcontractor role, MSU performs a DARPA high-strain-rate materials testing project (Kolsky Bar testing and reports) under BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration and participates as a sub-recipient on federal research grants anchored by the University of New Mexico, MIT, UC Davis, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, with scopes spanning extreme fungi characterization, alfalfa crop modeling, and rangeland resilience under drought conditions. MSU maintains Great Falls College Montana State University as a subsidiary educational institution within the university system.