The Queen's University Of Belfast

Queens University Belfast, an international non-profit educational institution headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, receives federal research grants as a prime recipient and holds occasional federal contracts and sub-awards in research and development. The institution does not compete for federal contracts as a prime contractor on government-wide vehicles or set-asides; its federal engagement is rooted in research collaboration and scientific grant work primarily through the National Institutes of Health, the Department of the Air Force, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Queens University Belfast's federal portfolio spans 45 awards (45 total across all sources), of which 34 are prime awards (76%) and 11 are sub-awards (24%). The institution's top customer by award count is the Department of the Air Force (14 awards), followed by the National Institute on Aging within the National Institutes of Health (5 awards), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (4 awards, $52 thousand combined potential value), and the Department of the Navy (4 awards). By potential value, the Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration anchors the portfolio at $375 thousand across one award, with the National Cancer Institute contributing $227 thousand across two awards. The Air Force awards, while numerically dominant, carry modest individual values; the rankings by count and by potential value diverge significantly, reflecting the institution's role as a co-investigator or sub-recipient on multiple defense science initiatives alongside a smaller number of higher-value health and aging research grants.

Recent activity concentrates in 2024, when Queens University Belfast received seven awards. The most substantial current commitment is a $1,092,659 National Institute on Aging grant (CFDA 93.866) awarded on September 1, 2026, for longitudinal follow-up of the Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA) through August 31, 2031. This award funds the third wave of data collection across approximately 6,000 participants, including health assessments, cognitive testing via the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol, and collection of biological samples to investigate cognitive aging, Alzheimer's disease, multimorbidity, and biological aging. A second substantial award is a $31,392.69 firm fixed-price purchase order from NOAA (April 6, 2023) for development of immunoreagents for algal toxin sensors, with completion required by March 13, 2026. Queens University Belfast also holds an earlier Air Force project grant focused on research and development in physics, specifically the cause and effect of geoeffective emission from solar flares (award date September 30, 2022, completion March 29, 2026).

In its sub-recipient capacity, Queens University Belfast performs specialized research tasks under prime grants from the Population Council, the Regents of the University of Michigan, William Beaumont Hospital, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Oregon Health & Science University, Harvard College, Rush University Medical Center, and the University of New Mexico. Sub-award work spans non-GMP formulation development and in vitro testing, cognitive assessment implementation and training, molecular mechanisms of calcification in aging, non-hormonal contraception research, nutritional epidemiology, and chronic pain treatment mechanisms. The institution operates primarily as a research performer and collaborator rather than a systems integrator or service provider, with work performed in Great Britain, United Kingdom.