Montclair State University

Montclair State University, a public Hispanic-Serving Institution headquartered in Montclair, New Jersey, receives federal grants as a prime recipient across research, education, and workforce development programs. The university operates as a research and teaching institution with no federal contracts held; all awards are grants administered by federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, and others. Montclair State does not compete under small-business set-asides; its footprint consists entirely of open educational and research grants directed to institutions of higher education.

The university's grant portfolio spans 305 awards (91% prime, 9% sub-recipient status) with combined obligated value of $282.7 million against $3 million in combined potential value listed across awards. Activity has remained steady over the past five years—18 awards in 2022, rising to 26 in 2024, with 21 awards in 2025. The most recent award closed June 1, 2026. Customer concentration is distributed across 75 federal agencies, with the National Science Foundation anchoring the portfolio at 88 awards. The National Endowment for the Arts (14 awards), NASA's Shared Services Center (12 awards), the Office of Postsecondary Education (12 awards), and the National Institutes of Health (11 awards) represent the next tier of engagement. These five agencies account for 45 percent of award count and 53 percent of combined potential value.

Montclair State's research capability footprint centers on STEM fields, environmental science, health services, and education scholarship. Representative prime grants include a $979.2 thousand Defense Health Agency award for structure-guided development of antimalarial compounds; a $533.8 thousand NSF Major Research Instrumentation award for an extended-reality driving simulator supporting interdisciplinary research in intelligent systems, psychology, and urban planning; a $500 thousand NSF CAREER award for human factors and task scheduling in multi-human, multi-robot collaborative manufacturing (Sept 2024–Aug 2029); a $500 thousand NSF grant for split learning methods in distributed edge machine learning (June 2026–May 2028); and a $444.8 thousand NSF International Research Experience for Students award supporting undergraduate and graduate student research placements in Japanese neurobiology laboratories. The university also holds grants for brownfield workforce development ($500 thousand, EPA Region 2, March 2026–Feb 2030), civics education ($1.7 million, Education, Oct 2025–Sept 2026), substance abuse prevention ($1 million, SAMHSA, Sept 2025–Sept 2030), and maternal and child health workforce development ($511 thousand, HRSA, June 2025–May 2030).

In its sub-recipient role, Montclair State participates in research partnerships anchored by Rutgers University (NJWRRI water research), New York University (speech-language pathology studies), Caltech (multi-messenger astrophysics infrastructure), the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene (social anxiety intervention), and the California Institute of Technology (gravitational-wave detection networks). New Jersey state agencies—the Department of Human Services, Department of State, and Department of Education—route evaluation, survey administration, and technical assistance work to Montclair State's Center for Research and Evaluation on Education and Human Services (CREEHS) and Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health. Federal sub-awards total 28 items, with recurring annual work in health surveillance (New Jersey High School Health Survey, YRBS school-based surveillance) and AmeriCorps member coordination.

Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months totals 21 awards valued at $93 thousand, a limited concentration risk. The university's grant strategy emphasizes capacity-building in research infrastructure (atomic force microscopy, mass spectrometry, collaborative robotics, extended-reality simulation), workforce and teacher preparation (STEM teacher scholarships, Upward Bound, TRIO Student Support Services), and applied social science addressing regional challenges (substance abuse prevention in Paterson, environmental remediation, water system resilience). As a minority-serving institution, Montclair State positions itself on federal programs targeting HSI and underrepresented student engagement, particularly NSF Education directorate programs and ED Office of Postsecondary Education initiatives.