North Dakota State University

North Dakota State University, a public 1862 land-grant research university headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, acts as a prime recipient and contractor across federal grants and research contracts spanning agriculture, veterinary diagnostics, engineering, and STEM education. The university competes full-and-open, with no set-aside designations, and operates as a research institution delivering both contract and grant-funded work across 154 federal agencies.

NDSU's federal footprint concentrates in agricultural research and extension. The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) leads by award count, followed by the Agricultural Research Service and the National Science Foundation. Across prime awards, NIFA and ARS together represent approximately 52% of recent awards when measured by the top customer by count ranking, with combined potential value reflecting significant ongoing research commitments in crop science, animal health, veterinary diagnostics, soil health, and sustainable agriculture. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 23 anchors the top-by-dollar ranking with $2 million combined potential value across 40 awards; the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services follows with $328 thousand across 21 awards, primarily diagnostic testing delivery orders under a single-award $80 thousand Indefinite Delivery Contract that runs through November 2026 and has generated approximately $118 thousand in task order work to date. This concentration in veterinary and animal health services reflects NDSU's specialized diagnostic laboratory capabilities housed at the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN).

The university's prime-vs-sub split is 86% prime (1,820 awards), 14% sub (291 awards), indicating NDSU operates predominantly as a direct federal contractor and grant recipient rather than a subcontractor feeder. Across SCI-reportable service contracts, the university reported only $71 thousand invoiced in FY2023 with 0.2 FTEs, declining to zero in FY2024—a narrow slice reflecting the fact that NIFA and NSF grant work, which dominates NDSU's federal portfolio, does not fall within the SCI reporting threshold of $150 thousand for service contracts. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI records run at median $215.08/hr. The university shows negligible subcontractor engagement on its prime service contracts (0% average sub-hours share), indicating it builds internal delivery capacity rather than relying on subs.

Capability delivery centers on agricultural research, diagnostic testing, extension education, and academic research across multiple disciplines. Representative contract work includes a $1.626 million delivery order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Upper Missouri River Basin site work in North Dakota (awarded November 2024, performing through September 2026); a $998 thousand definitive contract from the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program for epoxy functional polyurethane coatings research (awarded August 2025, completing June 2029); and delivery orders totaling approximately $118 thousand from USDA APHIS for diagnostic testing services—highly pathogenic avian influenza testing, antimicrobial resistance whole-genome sequencing, and foreign animal disease surveillance conducted at NDSU's facility in Ames, Iowa. On the grant side, NDSU holds leadership positions in NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) awards spanning plant breeding for climate-resilient varieties, animal health and production research, soil health and carbon sequestration, and agricultural economics; representative examples include a $900 thousand three-year award on vegetated buffer strip effectiveness in phosphorus reduction in cold-climate watersheds (awarded April 2026, with sub-recipients from the University of North Dakota and Regents of the University of Minnesota), a $728 thousand AFRI award on wearable plant sensor platforms for real-time crop health monitoring using nanomaterial sensors and AI (awarded April 2026), and a $800 thousand AFRI award on soil salinization in cold semiarid agricultural regions (awarded June 2026). National Science Foundation support emphasizes STEM education research and fundamental science—a $570 thousand CAREER award in fundamental cardiomyocyte immune sensing (awarded July 2026), a $625 thousand Major Research Instrumentation award for a 3D scanning vibrometer for vibration measurement across entomology and infrastructure assessment (awarded April 2026), and collaborative efforts on quantum computing verification and AI-enabled sensing systems. NDSU Extension delivers cooperative extension programming under formula grants from NIFA, including a $7.26 million Smith-Lever Extension award (awarded October 2025, running through September 2030) for research-based agricultural extension across North Dakota's 38 million acres of cropland and rangeland, and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) funding of $424 thousand for nutrition education to low-income populations (awarded October 2025).

Activity trajectory shows consistency: 89 awards in FY2022, growing to 138 in FY2023, then moderating to 134 in FY2024 and 127 in FY2025, with 63 awards year-to-date through August 2026. The next twenty-four months face recompete pressure on 105 awards carrying combined potential value of $7.2 million. The university's combined potential value across all awards totals $65.4 million; obligated amounts ($1.23 billion across the portfolio) reflect the distinction between potential ceiling values on open-ended research grants and the actual dollars committed.

The corporate structure includes Lake Region State College as a named subsidiary. NDSU operates through multiple research and outreach units—the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, NDSU Extension, and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory—each anchoring distinct parts of the federal portfolio. Teaming patterns show NDSU as a prime investigator collaborating with regional and national land-grant institutions (University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, Iowa State University) as sub-recipients on NIFA multistate research initiatives and NSF collaborative awards, consistent with the land-grant research network model. No evidence of subcontracting relationships or private-sector teaming appears in the award sample; NDSU's federal work is delivered through its own research faculty and facilities.

The university holds no GWACs or federal supply schedules in the source data. Its sole identified parent vehicle is the single-award $80 thousand USDA APHIS Indefinite Delivery Contract for animal laboratory testing services, which remains active through November 2026 and represents NDSU's institutional positioning as a designated NAHLN facility.