Purdue University

Purdue University is a 1862 land-grant public research institution headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana, operating as a non-profit educational entity. The university competes for and holds federal research funding as a prime recipient across research contracts and federal grants, with no set-aside designations—all work is awarded full-and-open competitive.

Purdue's federal footprint spans research and educational services spanning basic science, applied research, laboratory testing, engineering design, and graduate education delivery. The university's capability portfolio centers on investigator-driven research across physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, materials science, environmental science, and health-related fields, supported by extensive research infrastructure including specialized laboratories, computing facilities, and research centers. Representative prime contracts awarded in the past several months illustrate this scope: a $7.035 million Federal Aviation Administration contract for materials compatibility testing supporting the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions program (performance through September 2029); a $1.212 million FDA contract for human food state inspections in Indiana (through September 2031); a $4.556 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration delivery order for regional long-term weather records and environmental information services (through September 2031). On the research grant side, Purdue has received recent Project Grant awards from NSF, NIH, DOD, DOE, and other agencies funding investigator-initiated research in quantum materials, cancer immunotherapy, artificial intelligence, robotics, renewable energy, neuroscience, and agricultural sciences, with representative values ranging from $120,000 to $2.145 million per project.

Customer concentration is highly distributed across federal agencies. The top five funders by award count—National Science Foundation (1,841 awards), NASA (550 awards), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (522 awards), HHS National Institutes of Health (221 awards)—account for roughly 35% of all awards. By combined potential value, NASA leads with $122.7 million across 550 awards, followed by DARPA ($28.9 million, 95 awards), the Air Force Research Laboratory ($10.9 million, 129 awards), the Navy Office of Naval Research ($1.5 million, 191 awards), and the Air Force ($427 thousand, 143 awards). This distribution signals Purdue's role as a multi-customer research performer without dominant single-agency concentration.

Purdue holds a single-award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (ceiling $5.328 million through September 2031) for the Midwestern Regional Weather Records Center, supporting national climate and environmental information services across the Midwest region. The contract supports six regional climate centers nationwide, reflecting Purdue's designation as the hub institution for its region. The university also participates in task-order work under several other IDICs and delivery order vehicles, including NOAA contracts for regional climate and weather records services and delivery orders with Defense agencies.

Activity has been substantial and stable. Purdue recorded 9,779 federal awards (prime and sub combined) across its source data timespan, with annual prime-award volume of 704 in 2024, 560 in 2025, and 307 in 2026; a recent slowdown in 2026 likely reflects incompleteness in the source data for the year. Obligated federal dollars ($7.06 billion) exceed combined potential value ($815.9 million), indicating that many awards are fully funded or obligated in excess of their ceiling values. Within the next 24 months, 624 awards carrying combined potential value of $128.1 million face ultimate completion dates, indicating a recompete pipeline.

Purdue's prime-vs-sub profile shows the institution operates primarily as a direct federal award recipient: 8,879 of 9,779 awards (91%) are primes, with only 9% subcontract or sub-grant work. On federal service contracts captured in Service Contract Inventory, Purdue reported $5.6 million in invoiced revenue across FY2022–FY2025, with FY2023 showing the highest activity at $3.3 million across 1,473 FTEs. SCI-reported median government hourly rates on prime service contracts run around $116.49/hr, with a 10th percentile near $62/hr and a 90th percentile reaching $2,087/hr—reflecting the mix of standard services, specialty technical work, and high-value research consulting. Sub-hours share across prime service contracts averages 0%, indicating Purdue delivers most of its contracted service work with its own staff rather than relying on subcontractor labor.

Purdue's sub-engagement as a subcontractor shows two postures: on research contracts, Purdue subcontracts to Northwestern University on structural biology infectious disease centers (two awards, May 2026); to Auburn University on canine detection technologies (March 2026); and to Physical Sciences Inc. and CDM Federal Programs Corporation on specialized research projects. On the grant side, Purdue serves as a sub-recipient under prime grants from Ohio State University (multiple awards on emerging scholars mentorship and program development), Carnegie Mellon University (hydrogen-direct reduced iron steelmaking), Indiana University (pharmacokinetics, neuroscience, animal studies), Stanford University (superconductor-semiconductor hybrids), and others—positioning the university as a collaborating research partner rather than a contract prime but also contributing specialized capabilities (molecular beam epitaxy, animal models, data analysis, field studies) under lead-institution grants.

The university's federal work footprint spans NAICS categories centered on research and professional services—Colleges and Universities (314 awards), Testing Laboratories and Services (120 awards), Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (118 awards), and Engineering Services (84 awards)—along with PSC codes reflecting space science research, defense R&D, general science and technology, and professional support services. The portfolio is fundamentally research- and education-focused rather than supply or product-oriented.

Purdue operates through a corporate structure that includes Purdue University as the parent and primary recipient; Purdue Applied Research Institute LLC (a non-profit limited liability company supporting research commercialization and applied research); and Purdue Research Foundation (a non-profit foundation managing endowments, property, and research support infrastructure). These subsidiary entities enable the university to organize research enterprises, manage facilities, and execute specialized programs while maintaining the parent institution's tax status and governance.