Texas State University

Texas State University, a public Hispanic-Serving Institution and state government entity headquartered in San Marcos, Texas, delivers research, technical services, education, and training to federal agencies as a prime recipient and prime contractor across civilian, defense, and grant-funded programs. The university does not hold SBA set-aside designations, competes in full-and-open federal procurements, and operates without restricted competition posture.

Texas State's federal footprint spans 837 total awards (746 prime, 91 sub-awards) worth $74.9 million in combined potential value, though obligated dollars across the historical portfolio reach $845.4 million. Recent activity shows steady prime work: 73 awards in 2022, 68 in 2023, 86 in 2024, 61 in 2025, and 38 year-to-date in 2026. The university serves 152 distinct federal customer agencies, with award concentration among research and education funding sources. The top five customers by award count (31% coverage) are the National Science Foundation (124 awards), Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (45 awards), Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (39 awards), NASA Shared Services Center (32 awards, $32.7 million potential value), and Department of Justice National Institute of Justice (19 awards). By dollar value, NASA Shared Services Center leads at $32.7 million potential value across 32 awards; NSF, DOEd OPE, and NIFA follow. Recent contract vehicles include a single-award FDA Indefinite Delivery Contract for tobacco retail inspections in Texas valued at $16.7 million through September 2029, which has generated multiple task orders since 2024. Two additional IDCs (F0160079D0336 and 75F40124D00050) carry 16 task orders combined, with the latter valued at $8.2 million.

Prime contract work is concentrated in technical services and research delivery. Representative examples include a $3.47 million FDA delivery order for State Tobacco Retail Compliance Check Inspections (awarded May 2026, cost-no-fee, through May 2027), a $149 thousand Army Corps of Engineers purchase order for geosynthetic design research on unsaturated fouled ballast (awarded June 2025, extended June 2027), a $1.21 million FBI/Headquarters Division purchase order for constructive confrontation interrogation model development (awarded September 2023, completion September 2026, with Iowa State University as subcontractor), and a $264 thousand Federal Railroad Administration contract for pedestrian trespass behavior analysis (awarded September 2024, terminated June 2025, with Texas A&M Transportation Institute as sub). Prime contract awards use no set-asides.

Federal grant work dominates the portfolio in both award count and recent activity. Texas State acts as prime recipient on 746 grant awards across STEM education, research infrastructure, workforce development, and community services. Representative grant recipients include a $741.7 thousand USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative award (February 2026, through January 2029) investigating tRNA-derived fragments as plant defense activators to reduce pesticide reliance, with advanced training and mentorship for local high school students; a $10.2 million Department of Justice Preparing for Active Shooter Situations cooperative agreement (October 2025, through September 2027) delivering integrated active shooter training nationwide with sub-awards to Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service for exercise development workshops; a $4.16 million Department of Education Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools grant (October 2025, through September 2026) supporting campus-based child care services for low-income student parents; a $3.75 million NSF CREST Phase I center grant (September 2025, through August 2030) establishing a research and education center for ultrawide bandgap semiconductor device materials with three integrated subprojects in fabrication, characterization, and AI-informed materials modeling; and a $2.5 million Department of Health and Human Services Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood cooperative agreement (September 2025, through September 2030) delivering marriage and relationship education to 900 pregnant and parenting adolescents across eight Central Texas high schools. NSF STEM Education (CFDA 47.076) grants represent the largest grant program category. Recent NSF awards address undergraduate mathematics pedagogy, STEM retention through peer culture, volumetric video quality assessment in VR, proof-language analysis using AI, and spin-triplet superconductivity research. NIFA awards target crop resilience, aquaculture production efficiency, hemp cultivation, small-engine laboratory capacity, agricultural precision technology, and undergraduate agricultural mechanics training. Department of Education grants support student support services, TRIO programs, literacy initiatives, and teacher development.

Texas State subcontracts to prime universities and research institutions on grant work. Named primes include the University of Michigan (Monitoring the Future stimulant and opioid use trajectories, February 2025), Southern Methodist University (railroad workforce equity and education landscape research, October 2024), the University of Utah (environmental justice and urban forest assessment, October 2026), Vanderbilt University (police alert system and gun violence research, June 2026), Arizona State University (law enforcement training and police communication strategies, March and April 2026), Tufts College (environmental justice and health inequities, February 2026), Trustees of Tufts College (lean business model for fruit, vegetable, and fish value chains in Bangladesh, November 2024), and Michigan State University (MOSAIC forensic analysis methodology, April 2025). Sub-awards are characteristically research-support roles, subject-matter contribution to methodology development, data collection and analysis, and localized outreach—distinct from prime implementation roles. Sub-work in grant programs outweighs sub-work on contracts.

Activity trajectory shows decline from 2024's peak. Year-over-year awards fell from 86 (2024) to 61 (2025), and current-year 2026 pace (38 awards year-to-date through early November) suggests further contraction unless fourth-quarter activity accelerates. Sixty-three awards (combined potential value $4.1 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting significant recompete exposure and opportunity for new awards to offset departing dollars.

Texas State University competes as a civilian educational institution, not a for-profit contractor. Its federal footprint is anchored to research competencies in materials science, artificial intelligence, civil engineering, environmental sciences, agricultural technology, biomedical research, STEM education, and forensic anthropology. The university attracts federal funding from research agencies (NSF, NIH, DOD, USDA) and education agencies (ED, DOEd) on the basis of institutional capacity, faculty expertise, and its formal designations as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and R2 research university. The university does not pursue narrow set-aside vehicles or maintain specialized defense contracting infrastructure; instead, its federal engagement centers on open competition for research, technical assistance, and educational services aligned with its academic mission and regional economic development objectives in central Texas.