SAM Houston State University

SAM Houston State University (SHSU), a public Hispanic-Serving Institution and Minority Institution headquartered in Huntsville, Texas, operates as a federal grant recipient and prime contractor delivering education, training, research, and specialized support services to civilian and defense agencies. The university competes in full-and-open federal contracting—no set-aside posture—and acts as both prime recipient on grants and prime contractor on education-focused delivery orders, with limited subcontract footprint. Over the past five years, SHSU has received 373 total federal awards (prime and sub combined) with a combined potential value of $10.4 million, though obligated dollars across all awards total $239.7 million, reflecting the difference between awarded ceilings and actual expenditures on large cooperative agreements and grants.

SHSU's concrete capability footprint centers on federal workforce and student development, agricultural pest monitoring and surveillance, forensic science research infrastructure, and criminal justice training. Prime contract work is dominated by tuition and fees delivery for Navy and Marine Corps medical personnel—recurring delivery orders under a Basic Ordering Agreement with the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery running through June 2031, with individual order values ranging from $29,000 to $138,600. Representative examples include a $138,611 delivery order from the Navy (March 2026) for tuition support and a $99,099 purchase order from Army Recruiting Command (June 2026) for lodging, meals, and training facilities for 220 cadets attending the Houston ISD JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge. On the grant side, SHSU holds substantial awards in STEM education, agricultural research, and forensic science. A $4.99 million Project Grant from the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (November 2024) supports development of a Master's program in Applied Biomedical Sciences. A $1.99 million NSF STEM Education grant (October 2025, CFDA 47.076) funds scholarships and mentoring for low-income chemistry and forensic chemistry undergraduates. A $823,669 Project Grant from the National Institute of Justice (January 2025) supports research optimizing biomolecule processing strategies in forensic bone analysis across genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics.

Customer concentration is spread across federal research and civilian agencies, with agricultural and pest-monitoring work dominating award volume. The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service leads in award count with 68 awards; the National Science Foundation follows with 25 awards, and the Department of Justice National Institute of Justice accounts for 20 awards. Together these three account for roughly 40% of awards by count. The top five agencies by count (USDA APHIS, NSF, NIJ, Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education, and State Department Bureau of International Narcotics Law Enforcement) span 149 awards. By potential dollar value, NASA's Shared Services Center (5 awards, $1.6 million) and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (9 awards, $684 thousand) carry the highest individual award values, though the USDA APHIS cooperative agreements for pest survey and invasive species management dominate total obligation across the portfolio.

SHSU's parent vehicles reflect the education and research mission: a Basic Ordering Agreement with the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (N0018921GZ016) carries 11 task orders valued at $979 thousand for tuition delivery. No GWAC or government-wide IDIQ participation appears in the award summary. Activity has remained consistent at 28–42 awards per year across the last five years. Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months includes 32 awards with combined potential value of $1.2 million, concentrated in USDA APHIS cooperative agreements for pest monitoring and NSF research grants in chemistry, mathematics, and engineering education.

SHSU serves as prime recipient on substantial federal grants but appears in subcontractor roles primarily through research partnerships. Recent sub-award relationships show SHSU researchers collaborating with George Mason University on the JCOIN Coordination and Translation Center (Dr. Danielle Rudes as MPI and Core Lead), with Colorado State University on invertebrate field collection for a forensic entomology study, and with the University of Oklahoma on a doctoral training consortium (ELEVATE) in special education transition services. These subs reflect SHSU's niche in forensic science, criminal justice research, and STEM education workforce development.

SHSU's federal grant footprint is substantial and diverse, spanning Department of Education (TRIO Student Support Services, postsecondary education capacity building), NSF (STEM scholarships, mathematical sciences, chemistry, geosciences, graduate education innovation), National Institutes of Health (biomedical research training, general medical sciences), and USDA (agricultural education, pest surveillance, nematode research, crop library development). The university holds a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education designation and houses the Texas Invasive Species Institute, which is the delivery vehicle for most USDA APHIS pest monitoring and education work. Grant work typically carries project periods of two to five years and includes embedded undergraduate and graduate research opportunities aligned with the institution's role as a regional comprehensive university serving first-generation and underrepresented student populations.