Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York

Research Foundation of the City University of New York, doing business as RFCUNY - College of Staten Island, is a tax-exempt educational institution based in Staten Island, New York, that serves as a federal grant recipient in research and educational programs across the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, and STEM workforce development. The institution operates exclusively as a prime recipient on federal grants; it does not hold federal contracts and does not compete under set-aside categories.

The College of Staten Island's federal footprint consists entirely of research and educational grants administered through the Research Foundation. Recent grant work spans neurobiological research, materials science, mathematics, computational biology, and undergraduate education. Representative prime awards include a $530,156 National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant (CFDA 93.853) awarded September 2026 to investigate oxytocin and GABAergic mechanisms in benzodiazepine resistance across social mammals over a four-year period; an $800,000 National Science Foundation CAREER award (CFDA 47.074) running August 2025 through July 2030 to examine dopamine signaling and cortical myelination in socially isolated animals; a $644,355 NSF grant (CFDA 47.076) supporting a five-year mathematics and science teacher pathway program to train 30 STEM majors for high-need urban schools, with partnerships across Kingsborough Community College and New York City public schools; and a $110,000 NSF Mathematical Sciences grant (CFDA 47.049) for collaborative research on self-organized criticality and activated random walk models. Additional recent grants fund undergraduate research experiences in high-performance computing (REU site, $374,493 from NSF), curriculum development in global humanities ($150,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities), and equipment acquisitions including an ultracentrifuge ($24 thousand from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences), a liquid helium recycling system ($500,000 from NSF), and lab equipment upgrades for seven teaching departments.

Customer concentration reflects the institution's research-focused mission. The top five funding agencies by award count are the National Science Foundation (31 awards), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (5 awards), and smaller representation from the Department of Labor, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Across all federal sources, 114 awards with combined obligated value of $50.7 million span 43 distinct agencies, though combined potential value remains modest at $670 thousand, indicating that many awards are obligated near or at their full value. Seven awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

The institution acts as a sub-recipient on a small number of federal grants, including vocational education funding administered through the New York State Education Department, a sub-award from Florida State University for collaborative oceanographic research, and a small business development center sub-award administered by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York. SCI reporting captures minimal service-contract activity: one sub-contract record in FY2022 accounting for 0.2 FTEs, reflecting the institution's primary identity as an academic research recipient rather than a federal services contractor.

The Research Foundation's federal work centers on supporting faculty-led research and student training at an undergraduate-serving public institution. Thematic areas include neurobiological mechanisms underlying behavior and psychiatric conditions, mathematics and theoretical physics, genomics and molecular biophysics, undergraduate STEM workforce development, and curriculum innovation for underserved student populations in New York City. Educational grants emphasize training students from underrepresented groups, building bridges from community colleges to bachelor's degree completion, and expanding research participation in high-need urban schools.