Morgan State University

Morgan State University, a historically Black college and university (HBCU) headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, operates as a prime recipient on federal research grants and cooperates on federal research contracts, competing on merit in full-and-open procurements without set-aside designations. The university delivers research and educational services across atmospheric science, climate research, quantum information science, advanced materials, transportation engineering, biomedical sciences, STEM education, and workforce development to civilian and defense agencies, with recent awards from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Commerce.

Morgan State University's federal footprint centers on research and education recipients, not traditional federal contracting. The university holds 615 prime awards (88% of all tracked activity) across 698 total federal awards (prime and sub), with a combined potential value of $67.4 million and combined obligated dollars of $854.6 million across all sources since 1991. Most activity clusters in the past five years: 46 awards in 2022, 79 in 2023, 68 in 2024, 53 in 2025, and 11 to date in 2026. NASA's Shared Services Center (primarily through cooperative agreements for science research) dominates the customer base with 141 awards carrying $21.5 million in combined potential value, followed by the National Science Foundation (81 awards), the Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education (35 awards), and the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (33 awards). Research and development in physical, engineering, and life sciences dominates by NAICS; space science basic research and defense applied research lead by PSC.

Representative research awards illustrate the university's capability portfolio. NASA's Shared Services Center awarded a $1.34 million cooperative agreement for a long-term, high-resolution urban aerosol database for research, education, and outreach (completed March 2026). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded a $3.4 million Other Transaction Agreement for the Rads to Watts aerospace and advanced technology effort, concluding August 2028, working on research and development outside the Federal Acquisition Regulation. NASA's Office of STEM Engagement provided a $1.17 million cooperative agreement for attracting students to STEM fields through authentic learning experiences tied to NASA missions (September 2028). The National Science Foundation's Division of Human Resource Development awarded $2.69 million under the PERSIST II program to increase undergraduate STEM degree completion at the HBCU through adaptive mathematics instruction, curriculum development including an applied biology concentration, and research exposure (July 2030). NSF's Integrative Activities program provided $750,000 for an excellence-in-research project developing quantum-enabled security frameworks for Internet of Things systems (July 2028). The Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education funded $5 million under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education to enhance research infrastructure and support the institution's pursuit of Carnegie R1 research classification (October 2028).

Fifty-eight awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $5.2 million, presenting recompete opportunity for competitors and potential funding continuity for the university. The Service Contract Inventory dataset captures only $235 thousand in invoiced federal service revenue (FY2023 only) across three prime records spanning FY2022–FY2024, with fewer than one full-time equivalent on average. SCI is a partial window: it reports only federal service contracts above $150,000 and excludes research grants, cooperative agreements, fellowships, and educational sub-awards that constitute the bulk of Morgan State's federal activity.

Morgan State operates as a 88% prime recipient, with 83 sub-awards (12% of tracked activity) to other universities and research institutions. The university subcontracts to John Hopkins University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of New Mexico, and multiple other academic and laboratory partners on NASA, NSF, and Department of Education work. The university typically acts as a subrecipient or research partner rather than a prime contractor on industry-led federal projects, with recent sub-work to IBM on Small Business Mentor-Protégé programming, to Triad National Security on Los Alamos work, and to Stanford on energy frontier research centers. Morgan State University Inc is identified as a subsidiary entity in the corporate structure.

The university competes without set-aside designation across its federal research portfolio, relying on research merit and established relationships with federal agencies in space science, climate research, quantum information, advanced manufacturing, and STEM education. Activity has grown from a baseline of approximately 46 awards annually in 2022 to a peak of 79 in 2023, settling to 53 in 2025, reflecting both the university's expanded research capacity and the cyclical nature of federal grant competitions. The institution leverages its HBCU designation as a minority-serving institution to access programs designed to broaden participation in STEM and support capacity-building at historically underrepresented institutions, while competing broadly in open research solicitations from NSF, NASA, DoD, and civilian agencies.