Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, operating as Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Seattle, Washington that functions primarily as a federal grant recipient and prime contractor, delivering clinical trial coordination, cancer research infrastructure, biomedical research, infectious disease research, and health services to civilian federal agencies—notably the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Defense Health Agency. The organization is a non-profit tax-exempt corporate entity with no SBA set-aside designations.

Fred Hutch operates predominantly as a prime recipient and contractor across both grant and contract mechanisms. Recent awards (2022–2026) total 1,072 federal actions with combined potential value of $805 million and combined dollars obligated of $9.83 billion, reflecting the organization's role as steward of major multi-year research programs and clinical infrastructure. Prime awards account for 56% of the portfolio; sub-awards represent 44%. The organization competes full-and-open across all customer agencies; no set-aside activity appears in the source data.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which funds 385 awards carrying $650.7 million in combined potential value—representing 81% of the total portfolio by dollar value. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) represents the second-largest customer by award count (257 awards, $5.6 million combined potential value), followed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (69 awards, $146.2 million). The Defense Health Agency has placed 44 awards. This concentration reflects Fred Hutch's mission as a cancer research center with secondary expertise in infectious disease and translational immunology.

Concrete work spans clinical trial operations, vaccine development research, biomedical laboratory services, and health services delivery. Representative examples include a $20.6 million delivery order from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (awarded February 1, 2026) to serve as Clinical Coordinating Center for the Women's Health Initiative, a $50.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract from the National Cancer Institute (awarded May 1, 2025) to operate the Cancer Information Service—a bilingual contact center delivering cancer information and clinical trial support to the public and medical professionals through multiple communication channels—and a $1.9 million delivery order from the National Cancer Institute (awarded September 17, 2024) to maintain and enhance the SEER*EDUCATE platform, a cancer surveillance and education resource. A $1.3 million purchase order from the Department of Veterans Affairs (awarded July 1, 2024) supports cryogenic storage of hematopoietic stem cells for veterans' transplants. These awards span cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and firm fixed-price contract types with ultimate completion dates extending through 2030.

Federal grant recipient work is substantial and research-intensive. Fred Hutch has received 257 NIH grants across oncology, immunology, infectious disease, and aging research domains in the past 18 months alone (through June 2026). Representative grants include a $2.41 million National Human Genome Research Institute award (September 19, 2025) to develop an experimental-data-based in-silico platform for single-cell and spatial omics analysis; a $4.23 million National Cancer Institute cooperative agreement (September 19, 2025) for comprehensive characterization of T-cell immune responses to Kaposi Sarcoma Herpesvirus; a $7.9 million NIH Office of the Director award (September 15, 2025) to construct a Biosafety Level 3 facility; and a $2.0 million NIH Office of the Director award (July 15, 2025) to upgrade high-performance computing infrastructure. A $1.57 million National Institute on Aging grant (April 15, 2026) investigates immune aging in adult survivors of childhood cancer. These grants support fundamental research, clinical trials, workforce development, and infrastructure buildout.

Fred Hutch places task orders under parent government vehicles including the Women's Health Initiative IDIQ (multiple task orders) and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) contract. The organization serves as a coordinating center and principal investigator site on multi-institutional consortia and cooperative agreements, a posture that distinguishes it from typical contractor operations and aligns with its status as a research institution.

Sub-award engagement shows Fred Hutch acting as a prime on major research awards and subcontracting specific research components to other universities and research institutes. Named sub-recipients of Fred Hutch grants include the University of Washington, The Johns Hopkins University, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Rockefeller University, Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, and others. Sub-awardees typically perform specific research aims, provide specialized analytical services (such as cryo-electron microscopy, genomic sequencing, or advanced computational modeling), or coordinate satellite sites. The organization maintains robust subcontracting partnerships within the research and academic community rather than typical for-profit supply relationships.

Service Contract Inventory data (FY2022–FY2024) shows SCI-reportable invoiced revenue of $64.9 million across 23 records (17 prime, 6 sub), reflecting clinical trial coordination, biomedical research support, and health services delivery. FY2024 invoiced amounts reached $24.6 million across 118 full-time equivalents. Government-paid hourly rates on federal services contracts median around $130/hr for non-management labor, with senior labor pricing through $406/hr and entry-level rates around $63/hr, consistent with academic research and clinical trial operations. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed approximately 11% of total contractor hours, indicating Fred Hutch builds delivery largely through its own staff rather than systematic subcontracting.

A recompete cliff of $68.5 million in combined potential value faces ultimate completion within the next 24 months, creating renewal opportunity across NCI, NHLBI, and NIAID funding streams. Activity has grown year over year—86 awards in the first 12 months of 2026 compared to 75 in 2022—though the annualized pace (227 awards in FY2025) suggests a mature, high-volume federal recipient operation with routine grant portfolio management rather than rapid growth trajectory.