Missouri Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden, a not-for-profit botanical research institution based in St. Louis, Missouri, operates as a federal grant recipient (96% of awards) rather than a federal contractor, receiving research and workforce-development funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Smithsonian Institution, and allied agencies. The Garden does not hold federal contracts or contract vehicles; its federal footprint is entirely grant-based.

The Garden's federal grant portfolio centers on botanical research, plant conservation, herbarium digitization, and undergraduate research training. Recent representative work includes a $187,990 NSF Biological Sciences grant (CFDA 47.074) awarded in September 2026 to build Biodiversity on Demand (BOND), a web platform for discovering and integrating biodiversity databases, running through August 2029; a $298,630 NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site grant (CFDA 47.074) awarded in April 2026 to train eight undergraduate students per summer in botany and conservation biology through March 2029; a $448,516 NSF International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) grant (CFDA 47.079) awarded in November 2025 to support collaborative field research on tropical pollination biology in Colombia through October 2028; and a $377,986 NSF Biological Sciences grant (CFDA 47.074) awarded in March 2025 to study eco-evolutionary forces driving micro-endemism in Madagascar Diospyros species through February 2028. The Garden also holds a $199,997 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 10.902) awarded in September 2023 to develop a taxonomic crosswalk among North American plant databases through July 2025, and a pair of Institute of Museum and Library Services grants for living collections management systems and ex situ conservation research.

Customer concentration is diffuse across thirty distinct federal agencies, with the National Science Foundation leading by award count at thirty awards, followed by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science at twelve awards, and paired awards from the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service (eight each). The two rankings diverge markedly on dollar value—the source reports only $1.1 million in combined potential value across all 126 awards but $31.7 million in combined dollars obligated, indicating substantial historical and ongoing funding flows that exceed the stated potential value. The Smithsonian Institution anchors the top-customer-by-value ranking with four awards and $106 thousand in combined potential value, a signal of the Garden's research infrastructure role rather than prime contract delivery scale.

The Garden's federal grant footprint emphasizes biodiversity science, plant taxonomy, conservation genetics, herbarium digitization, and student training across NSF biological and environmental programs, USDA conservation initiatives, and Interior Department fish-and-wildlife partnerships. The institution acts as prime recipient on 121 of 126 awards and as a sub-recipient on four grant awards under Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Mississippi, and Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Four awards face recompete or completion within the next twenty-four months. The Garden does not compete under set-aside categories or hold seats on federal contract vehicles, positioning it as a research institution rather than a commercial contractor.