Old Dominion University Research Foundation

Old Dominion University Research Foundation, doing business as Odurf, a tax-exempt research foundation affiliated with Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, serves as a prime recipient for federal research grants and cooperative agreements across a broad portfolio of STEM disciplines, with particular concentration in space science, oceanography, engineering, and life sciences research funded through NSF, NASA, DoD, and civilian agencies.

Odurf operates as a research grant recipient rather than a federal contractor, competing for and managing federal research awards predominantly on a full-and-open, non-set-aside basis. The foundation functions as an interface between academic research capabilities at Old Dominion University and federal agency requirements, administering research and educational initiatives across 148 distinct federal agencies. Recent activity shows sustained momentum: 49 awards in 2022 growing to 79 awards in 2024, with 78 awards in 2025 and 20 awarded through mid-July 2026. The award footprint spans 1,591 total awards (prime and sub) since 1980, with combined potential value of $322.8 million and combined obligated dollars of $673.7 million—indicating substantial drawdown against awarded amounts.

NSF leads the customer concentration by award count with 293 awards, followed by NASA's Shared Services Center with 119 awards worth $46 million combined potential value, and the Department of the Navy with 112 awards. The Office of the Secretary of Defense anchors the dollar ranking with 66 awards valued at $67.6 million combined potential, followed by NASA's Shared Services Center and Navy CNO-level awards. The top five agencies account for approximately 44% of recent awards. Odurf carries significant recompete exposure: 48 awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $4 million.

The capability portfolio centers on federally funded research and education delivery across engineering, oceanography, computational methods, cybersecurity, STEM workforce development, and biomedical sciences. Representative prime grants illustrate the scope: a $3.41 million NASA cooperative agreement for STEM engagement and workforce development (April 2025, through April 2029); a $2.5 million NSF Division of Graduate Education project grant for a CyberAI Scholarship for Service program (July 2026–June 2029); a $632,896 NSF Geosciences project grant investigating sunlight and marine microorganisms' effects on ocean carbon cycling (July 2026–June 2029); a $1.12 million research grant for blue carbon observatory development focused on submerged aquatic vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay (January 2025–December 2027); and a $1.2 million cooperative agreement with NIST for cybersecurity workforce development (October 2024–September 2026). Odurf also administers a $147 million multiple-award indefinite delivery contract for United States Naval Community College Partnerships and maintains a significant Basic Ordering Agreement with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Educational programming is prominent: Odurf operates Women's Business Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, and REU sites in accelerator physics and graph machine learning, reflecting a mission-driven commitment to workforce development and inclusive STEM access.

On the contract side, Odurf holds task order positions under Navy IDCs including N0018908DZ052 (69 task orders, $18 million combined potential value), N0014098DH182 (54 task orders), and N0014003DH100 (26 task orders, $32 million combined potential value). Teaming occurs through sub-award relationships: Odurf acts as sub-recipient under prime grantees including the University of Delaware, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University on collaborative biogeochemical, health services, and infrastructure research projects. The SCI dataset shows minimal service contract invoicing (three records totaling 0.5–0.6 FTEs in FY2022 and FY2024), reflecting that Odurf's federal footprint is predominantly grant and cooperative agreement driven rather than billable services.

Category concentration shows 172 awards under Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (NAICS 611300), with secondary strength in Engineering Services (60 awards) and Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (30–46 awards depending on biotechnology/nanotechnology subcategories). PSC-level concentration clusters around space R&D services (78 awards), support for professional engineering/technical work (88 awards), special studies and analysis for defense (68 awards), and basic research in space science and defense electronics (59–62 awards). The geographic footprint is centered at the Norfolk, Virginia headquarters and affiliated Old Dominion University campus, with subordinate work performed through partner institutions and field sites including the Chesapeake Bay region, Antarctica, and distributed university collaborators.