Rutgers, The State University

Rutgers, The State University Research Financial Services Division administers federal research contracts and grants as the prime recipient on approximately 4,900 awards across 252 federal customer agencies, operating as a major 1862 land-grant research institution and non-profit educational entity headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The university's federal footprint spans multidisciplinary research and educational services grounded in concrete capability delivery. On the contract side, Rutgers holds a long-standing Basic Ordering Agreement (N0018924GZ016) with the Department of Defense Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (extended through August 2034) that enables provision of research and development services across biomedical sciences, engineering, computer science, environmental sciences, and social sciences. Recent contract examples include a $3.83 million cost-no-fee delivery order from the Army Research Development and Engineering Command (September 2025) for hypersonic wind tunnel facility upgrades at New Brunswick; a $999,347 definitive contract from the FDA (September 2025) to develop and implement an AI/ML toolbox for digitalization of advanced modular continuous API manufacturing; and a $1.61 million cost-no-fee contract from the Humphreys Engineer Center Support Activity (June 2025) conducting basic research on fate and transport of microplastics impacted with PFAS under the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.

On the grant side, Rutgers receives substantial support from the National Science Foundation (1,243 awards, the largest customer by count), the National Institutes of Health (286 awards), and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (242 awards). Signature grant work includes a $3.41 million cooperative agreement from NASA (March 2025) for STEM engagement and workforce development; a $11.7 million award from the Federal Transit Administration (September 2025) for continued operations of the National Transit Institute under 49 U.S.C. Section 5314(c); a $3.365 million cooperative agreement from NSF (October 2025) to enhance and expand the COSMOS platform for city-scale wireless and sensing research in New York City; and a $6.89 million project grant from the Federal Transit Administration (June 2025) for National Transit Institute operations and training delivery. The university also holds a $2.06 million cooperative agreement from NOAA (July 2025) to develop the East Coast Community Ocean Forecast System for operational oceanographic nowcasting and forecasting, with sub-awardees including Fathom Science Inc. and the University of California Santa Cruz.

Customer concentration is moderate and distributed across research-intensive federal missions. The top five customers by award count (NSF, NIH, NIFA, Navy, NOAA) represent approximately 40 percent of all awards. NSF and NIH-NLM dominate the dollar value concentration; NASA Shared Services Center accounts for $37.8 million combined potential value across 132 awards, the highest single-customer concentration by dollars. The recompete cliff shows 266 awards (combined potential value $33.8 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing moderate near-term competition exposure.

Activity has grown, then contracted in recent years. Award volume increased from 208 in 2022 to 324 in 2024 but fell to 218 in 2025 and 63 in 2026 (partial-year data through November). Combined potential value across all awards stands at $373.5 million, though obligated dollars total $4.31 billion, indicating substantial ongoing work under multi-year awards.

Rutgers operates primarily as a prime contractor and prime grant recipient (93 percent of awards), with limited subcontractor activity. On the contract side, the university subcontracts to other primes on targeted research efforts; recent examples include a sub-award to Texas Tech University System (July 2024) for sediment screening and advanced oxidation process research under Army Corps of Engineers funding. On the grant side, Rutgers distributes sub-awards to academic and non-profit collaborators across diverse research domains—for example, sub-awards to Columbia University, University of Delaware, University of Washington, and Fordham University on NSF, NOAA, NIH, and education department projects. The sub-award structure reflects the institution's role as a lead research coordinator on collaborative, multi-institutional projects rather than a feeder to larger primes.

Service Contract Inventory data capture a narrow slice: 44 SCI-reportable records (40 as prime, 4 as named subcontractor) spanning FY2022–FY2024, with invoiced revenue of $1.7 million ($1.3 million in FY2023, $440 thousand in FY2024). Workforce scale in SCI-reportable services ranged from 1.4 FTEs (FY2022) to 7.2 FTEs (FY2023) to 2.5 FTEs (FY2024). Government-paid hourly rates on federal services contracts ran a median of $92.78/hr (10th percentile $84.72/hr, 90th percentile $164.30/hr). These SCI figures represent only service contracts above the $150,000 threshold and exclude research grants, facility operations, goods procurement, and non-federal enterprise revenue; they are a strict subset of the university's federal footprint and much smaller than total institutional revenue. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, average sub-hours share was zero percent, indicating the university performs services primarily with its own workforce on these contracts.

Rutgers' federal portfolio spans full-and-open competition; the university holds no enterprise-level set-aside designations (8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOSB). Competition posture is overwhelmingly by unrestricted competition, reflecting the institution's status as a state-controlled, non-profit research university. The vendor holds no named subsidiaries carrying distinct SBA certifications or operational capability framing in the award record.