Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York

Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York, doing business as Rfcuny - Hostos Community College, is a tax-exempt educational institution and fiscal agent for sponsored research programs at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx. RFCUNY operates as a prime recipient of federal grants focused on STEM education, student support services, and workforce development, with no federal contract prime or sub-award activity in the source data. The organization is a subsidiary of The City University Of New York.

RFCUNY's federal grant portfolio centers on National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Education (ED) funding for undergraduate STEM education and student retention initiatives. Representative prime grant awards include a $2 million NSF STEM Education grant (CFDA 47.076) funding the Hostos Engineering Academic Talent Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships and mentoring support to up to 30 low-income engineering students over six years with transfer pathways to City College of New York's Grove School of Engineering; a $1.5 million NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics grant (awarded October 2022, completing September 2028) providing scholarships to 35 scholars in mathematics and computer science; a $650,000 NSF grant for the Hostos Technical Education in Cybersecurity (H-TEC) project, developing seven online cybersecurity courses with industry certifications aligned to federal standards; and a $1 million Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant (CFDA 84.116) supporting student mentorship and research assistant programs at Hostos. Additional active grants include an NSF-funded $127,046 planning project researching language proficiency and belonging among bilingual STEM students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and a November 2026 NSF Division of Undergraduate Education award supporting a conference on scientific innovations in political science curricula at two-year colleges.

Customer concentration is split between NSF and ED funding mechanisms. The NSF Division of Undergraduate Education leads by award count with five grants, followed by the ED Office of Postsecondary Education with five awards; the broader NSF organization (including other divisions such as Division of Human Resource Development) accounts for four additional awards. The Department of Education Office of Career Technical and Adult Education, Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, and sub-grant relationships with Rutgers University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and New York State Education Department round out the active portfolio.

RFCUNY operates predominantly as a prime grant recipient rather than a contract holder, with 69% of recent awards held as prime grants and 31% as sub-awards. Sub-award activity includes participation in Rutgers-led NIH research on botanicals and chronic diseases in international sites, Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Bronx Einstein Training in Teaching and Research (BETTR) program, and New York State Education Department vocational and integrated English literacy and civics grants. Two grants reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months present near-term recompete exposure. The organization's capability footprint emphasizes curriculum development, student scholarship administration, workforce training program implementation, and research coordination for underrepresented populations in STEM fields at a Hispanic-Serving Institution.