Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University, doing business as Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, is a state-controlled academic medical center and child entity of the Pennsylvania State University system that serves as a prime recipient of federal research grants, primarily from the National Institutes of Health, and as a subcontractor on service contracts. It is a tax-exempt educational institution and 1862 land-grant college located in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The institution's federal footprint is heavily concentrated in biomedical research. Penn State Hershey operates as a research recipient rather than a commercial contractor; its prime work is predominantly grant-funded research, not competitive service contracts. The vendor holds a single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Pre-Clinical Models of Infectious Diseases IDIQ, ceiling $146.3 million, through July 2031) and participates on several smaller BPAs and master IDIQs. Representative recent grant work includes a $7.892 million cooperative agreement with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to operate the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), funding clinical and translational science infrastructure across Pennsylvania's rural communities; a $1.324 million NIH grant to conduct direct measurement of Rh D sensitization following early pregnancy bleeding; a $679 thousand grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study thiamine supplementation for preventing neurologic sequelae in infants with invasive bacterial infections; and a $1.948 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases investigating post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression during bone regeneration. The institution also holds the NIAID pre-clinical animal models IDIQ, through which it conducts development and validation of animal models to evaluate therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics against infectious diseases with pandemic potential.

Customer concentration is extremely high and dominated by the National Institutes of Health. Across 248 NIH awards, the institution serves 77 distinct federal agencies, but 49% of recent awards come from five NIH institutes: the National Cancer Institute (85 awards, $2.6 million combined potential value), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (74 awards), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (58 awards, $170.6 million combined potential value), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (48 awards). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases alone accounts for 96% of combined potential value across all awards, reflecting the institution's role as a major supplier of pre-clinical animal models and infectious disease research capacity to the federal government. The Defense Health Agency places a smaller set of awards ($100 thousand combined potential value across 28 awards) focused on medical research aligned with military health outcomes.

Activity has declined modestly in recent years—70 awards in 2023, 82 in 2024, 65 in 2025, and 51 in 2026—suggesting maturation of the research portfolio rather than growth. The institution faces a recompete cliff of 121 awards with ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and combined potential value of $1.2 million, reflecting the project-based grant lifecycle. Service Contract Inventory reporting captures minimal activity: the source shows only one SCI-reportable prime contract (zero invoiced revenue in FY2025) and 7 subcontractor records, indicating the vendor delivers research services primarily through grants rather than commercial service contracts above the $150 thousand SCI threshold. The institution leverages partnerships with universities, clinical networks, and health systems across Pennsylvania (Allegheny Health Network, Geisinger Health, Primary Health Network, Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers) to extend its research reach into rural populations.

As a state-controlled educational and research institution, Penn State Hershey does not compete on commercial service contracts or private-sector IDIQs. It operates in the federal research space through grants, cooperative agreements, and research task orders, positioning it as a research partner rather than a commercial contractor to other primes.