ST Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc.

ST Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc., a tax-exempt nonprofit pediatric research institution headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, is the primary recipient of federal research grants and contracts—not a service vendor. The hospital acts as both prime recipient of federal grants and subrecipient under grant agreements, with no presence in federal contracts as a prime awardee. The organization receives funding across the National Institutes of Health's component institutes and the Department of Defense's Military Medical Research and Development program.

ST Jude operates as a grant-funded research enterprise, not a federal contractor. Across 951 awards (712 prime grants and 25% subgrants) spanning 1978–2026, the organization has accumulated $878.6 million in combined potential value across all awards and $2.86 billion in obligated dollars. Activity has accelerated sharply: 47 awards in 2022 increased to 112 in 2024 and 98 in 2025, with 40 awards recorded through mid-2026. The National Cancer Institute (219 awards), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (122 awards, $474.2 million combined potential value), and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (45 awards) represent the largest funding sources by award count and dollar magnitude. About 65 percent of recent awards concentrate within these three institutes, with the remaining 35 percent distributed across 42 federal agencies including the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and Defense Health Agency.

ST Jude's research footprint centers on pediatric cancer biology, immunology, and infectious-disease research. Representative prime grant work includes a $3.1 million Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program grant (CFDA 93.393) investigating fusion oncoprotein condensates in pediatric cancers (awarded September 2025, completion August 2030) through the FUSONC Program Project, a $867 thousand National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant (CFDA 93.855) on vaccine evasion mechanisms in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 (awarded May 2026, completion April 2031), and a $768.7 million National Cancer Institute Cancer Treatment Research program grant (CFDA 93.395) studying epigenetic control in neuroblastoma (awarded August 2025, completion July 2030). The hospital also holds cooperative agreements, including a $1.94 million Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cooperative agreement (CFDA 10.025) investigating High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza transmission to commercial poultry (awarded February 2026, completion January 2029, with subawards to University of Minnesota and Penn State University). Grant awards span five to five-year project periods, with deliverables including mechanistic research, biomarker discovery, translational research services, and clinical trial infrastructure.

Service Contract Inventory data shows minimal federal service-contract activity: $58.8 million in SCI-reportable invoiced amounts across FY2022–FY2024 (9 prime records, 9 subcontractor records). Median government-paid hourly rates on prime contracts run approximately $204/hr, with a range from $120/hr (10th percentile) to $492/hr (90th percentile). FTE delivery across SCI-reported contracts averaged 29.7 in FY2022, declined to 14.5 in FY2023, and recovered to 16.7 in FY2024. Across prime service contracts, subcontractors performed approximately 24 percent of total contractor hours, involving 34 named subs including FM Talent Source, LLC, and multiple university partners.

ST Jude's subgrant portfolio (239 awards, 25 percent of total) reflects a collaborative research ecosystem: Mayo Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Chicago, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia appear as frequent sub-grantees. Sub-awards typically allocate $26 thousand to $300 thousand annually and support specific research aims—genomic analysis, immunological assays, statistical oversight, clinical site operations, and specialized laboratory services. Mayo Clinic, for example, received sub-awards for genome-wide sequencing analysis and proteomics profiling of cerebrospinal fluid in Alzheimer's disease research; Baylor College of Medicine received $280.5 thousand for cognitive phenotyping oversight in Down syndrome leukemia studies.

The organization does not operate as a federal contractor and does not bid on competitive service contracts. Its federal relationship is entirely grant-based. Eighty-two awards face completion within the next twenty-four months with combined potential value of $3.1 million, representing modest recompete exposure in the grant environment where continued federal investment depends on scientific merit review rather than competitive contract bidding. ST Jude's positioning as a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center dedicated exclusively to pediatrics anchors its federal funding in basic and translational pediatric oncology and related fields of childhood disease, immunotherapy, and survivorship research.