Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York

Research Foundation Of The City University Of New York, doing business as Rfcuny - Laguardia Community College, is a tax-exempt educational institution and subsidiary of the City University of New York that operates as a federal grant recipient (84% of recent awards as prime recipient) focused on workforce development, STEM curriculum innovation, procurement technical assistance, and community-focused educational initiatives. The organization does not hold federal contracts; its footprint is entirely grant-based, with no IDIQs, GWACs, or contract vehicles.

The recipient's grant portfolio spans 81 awards (68 prime, 13 sub-recipient) across 28 federal agencies. Customer concentration tracks tightly across both award volume and potential value: the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education leads with 14 awards; the National Endowment for the Humanities follows with 10 awards; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Shared Services Center, Defense Logistics Agency, and Defense Logistics Agency Headquarters account for 19 additional awards combined. These five agencies represent 53% of all recent awards. Work is performed in Long Island City and Astoria, New York, with outreach to the New York Metropolitan Area.

Recent prime grant work exemplifies the organization's capability portfolio. The Office of the Secretary of Defense awarded a $731,525.95 cooperative agreement (CFDA 12.002, Procurement Technical Assistance For Business Firms) on July 1, 2026, to establish and maintain an APEX Accelerator providing free procurement technical assistance to businesses and startups; the award runs through June 30, 2027. The Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education funded a $1.998 million project grant (CFDA 84.116, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) on January 1, 2026, supporting the LaGuardia Community College Workforce Success Engine for Pell-Eligible Pathways through December 31, 2029. The recipient also holds a $2,992,528.86 project grant from the Bureau of Health Professionals (awarded September 15, 2022, completion March 31, 2026) for a Community Health Worker Talent Pipeline Initiative targeting low-income, unemployed, and underemployed New Yorkers from public housing, immigrant, and communities-of-color populations across four training tracks. Additional representative work includes a $150,000 project grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (CFDA 45.149) for oral history and intergenerational community-based learning in Queens (awarded February 1, 2025, completion January 31, 2026), a $280,000 Veterans Legacy Grants Program award (CFDA 64.204) from the National Cemetery Administration for K-12 educator professional development at Cypress Hills National Cemetery (September 1, 2025, completion August 31, 2026), and a Bureau of Justice Assistance project grant supporting accelerated college transition programming for residents of Queensboro Correctional Facility (October 1, 2023, completion September 30, 2027).

Sub-recipient work accounts for 16% of awards, with LaGuardia embedded in larger research and training consortia. Cornell University serves as prime on multiple sub-awards supporting development of open educational resources (OER) textbooks and lab materials for an introductory astrobiology course. The Research Foundation For The State University Of New York primes sub-awards where LaGuardia operates an SBDC network and participates in semiconductor workforce development under the EASEL (Engineering Academies for Student Experiential Learning) program. Columbia University primes a sub-award in which LaGuardia manages workforce training lab setup, outreach, and research coordination for future manufacturing. Colorado Mesa University funds two student positions per year for remote astronomical observation and analysis as part of NASA's Exoplanet Watch project. Activity has fluctuated between 2 and 11 awards per year over the past five years, with 4 awards reaching ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months.

The organization's grant work emphasizes applied workforce pathways, humanities and cultural learning, mental health and community health literacy training, justice-system reentry support, and STEM curriculum innovation for community college students and faculty, with recurring focus on equity-serving populations—Pell-eligible students, incarcerated individuals, immigrants with limited English proficiency, veterans, and students from high-poverty communities.