Northeastern University

Northeastern University, a private non-profit research institution based in Boston, Massachusetts, serves as a prime recipient and prime contractor to federal agencies across research, education, and training missions, competing full-and-open with no SBA set-aside posture. The university operates as a tax-exempt entity under parent-child structure with Commonwealth of Massachusetts designation and maintains three subsidiary entities, including KRI At Northeastern University LLC.

Northeastern's federal footprint spans 3,434 awards (2,946 prime, 488 sub) across 190 customer agencies, with combined potential value of $472.3 million and $2.62 billion obligated. Recent activity shows 257 awards in FY2025 and 137 awards in 2026 YTD, with 246 awards (combined potential value $24.5 million) completing within the next twenty-four months. The university's award portfolio concentrates in research and development, education, and training delivery. Top NAICS categories include Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (136 awards) and Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (29–49 awards depending on sub-category). Top PSC codes reflect education and tuition support (103 awards), general R&D services in applied research and basic research (76–64 awards), and experimental development (51 awards).

Customer concentration by award count shows National Science Foundation (742 awards), Department of the Air Force (214 awards), and National Institutes of Health (110 awards, $18.6 million combined potential value) as the top three. By potential value, the Navy dominates with 88 awards totaling $147.1 million, followed by NIH ($18.6 million on 110 awards) and NASA's Shared Services Center ($15.1 million on 80 awards). The divergence signals Navy's leverage of larger vehicle orders versus NSF's high-volume small-award model.

Representative prime contract examples include a $18.6 million Other Transaction Agreement with the National Institutes of Health for the PATCH (Pathogen Analysis and Tracking Catalysis for Health) cybersecurity platform for healthcare systems (award date September 24, 2025); a $2.18 million DARPA Other Transaction IDV for the Microsystems Induced Catalysis (MICA) program targeting molecular catalyst modeling and fabrication control (award date August 8, 2025); and recurring Navy delivery orders for Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps midshipmen tuition and allowable fees (Spring 2026, $207 thousand; Summer 2026, $57.3 thousand). Northeastern also holds a $7.114 million NSF cooperative agreement (awarded July 1, 2026) as prime recipient for the Scaling Deep Tech Innovation Through International Partnerships initiative, facilitating bilateral workshops and startup partnerships with Japan and South Korea.

Recent grant work across NIH, NSF, DOE, and DoD demonstrates breadth spanning biomedical research, engineering, quantum computing, and climate science. Representative examples include $1.144 million National Cancer Institute project grant for precision cancer microsurgery using laser ablation-cooling with pulse bursts (awarded September 1, 2026); $655 thousand NSF award for Hybrid Active Magnonic Magnetometry with Enhanced Resolution (HAMMER) sensor development (October 1, 2026); $674.161 million NSF Mathematical Sciences grant for multiscale computational frameworks in tissue regeneration (August 1, 2026); and $2.62 million NSF Smart and Connected Communities grant (September 1, 2025) for resilience and safety engineering of neural and medical implant devices through hardware-software co-design. Subrecipient collaborations on grants include partnerships with MIT, University of Massachusetts, University of Illinois, Boston Children's Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, and over 25 other institutions.

Teaming posture shows Northeastern operates as prime in 86% of awards and as subcontractor in 14%. Across SCI-reportable service contracts, Northeastern invoiced $7.3 million in federal service revenue FY2022–FY2025 (FY2022: $2.9 million on 11.4 FTEs; FY2023: $2.9 million on 8.2 FTEs; FY2024: $1.6 million on 6.3 FTEs; FY2025: negligible). Median government-paid hourly rates run around $142.36/hr, with senior labor pricing through $280.22/hr. The university engages subcontractors for approximately 23% of SCI-reported hours across prime contracts, naming 30 distinct subs. Named subcontractors in recent awards include TDA Research (contract support, June 2026), Arizona State University (irregular warfare research center services, May 2026), Raytheon Company (COFFEE RF filter program, December 2025), and KRI At Northeastern University LLC (organic industrial base rapid evaluation, October 2025).

Northeastern's prime contract vehicles include indefinite-delivery contracts with the Air Force (F1962881C0029 with 35 task orders; F1962883C0037 with 18 task orders; F1962887C0128 with 13 task orders; DAKF4079H0019 with 15 task orders) and other DoD offices. The university's subsidiary KRI At Northeastern University LLC structures certain R&D and policy-analysis work under separate contracting mechanisms, as evidenced by the Army's "Rapid Evaluation for OIB Funding Strategies" sub-award (October 2025).

Northeastern University competes full-and-open across federal customer base with no characteristic set-aside posture. The institution's role as a leading private research university positions it as a prime recipient and contractor on foundational research, applied engineering, and educational training across military, intelligence, civilian health, and science agency missions, with secondary teaming relationships on larger defense system integration efforts and interagency research initiatives.