The Trustees Of Davidson College

The Trustees of Davidson College, a private, tax-exempt, non-profit educational institution headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, serves as a recipient and sub-recipient of federal research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of the Army, with no federal contracts or contract vehicles in its portfolio.

Davidson College operates almost exclusively as a prime recipient (97% of recent awards). The institution's federal footprint spans biomedical research, basic life sciences, STEM education workforce development, and civil discourse programming, funded through project grants and cooperative agreements rather than transactional procurement. The college has captured grants from 36 distinct federal agencies over recent decades, though activity in the past five years shows moderate volume: three awards in 2022, six in 2023, seven in 2024, three in 2025, and three in 2026 year-to-date. The combined potential value across all awards reported sits at $2 thousand (an apparent system artifact masking true grant values), but obligated dollars total $44.4 million, indicating substantial real invoiced revenue across the grant footprint.

The top funding agencies by award count reflect life sciences and education concentration. The Department of the Army leads with 34 awards; the National Science Foundation follows with 27 awards; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences holds six awards; and the broader National Institutes of Health family accounts for five additional awards split between the NIH Office of the Director and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The two top-customer rankings track identically, with no tension between volume and dollar concentration. The portfolio's most recent representative work includes a $487,727 NIGMS project grant (CFDA 93.859, Biomedical Research and Research Training) awarded May 15, 2026 to develop a library of sulfated glycomacromolecules for investigating viral protein-carbohydrate recognition in heparan sulfate proteoglycans; a $3,999,985 Office of Postsecondary Education grant (CFDA 84.116, FIPSE) effective January 1, 2026 to establish a National Higher Education Deliberative Citizenship Network fostering civil discourse across 100 U.S. campuses; and a $189,672 NIH Trans-NIH Research Support grant (CFDA 93.310, NIDA) awarded August 15, 2025 investigating fentanyl-xylazine toxicity and potential rescue medications. Additional recent awards include a $327,885 NSF CAREER project grant (CFDA 47.075, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences) on mindfulness efficacy in the attention economy, a $400,790 NIGMS Biomedical Research grant on bacterial anti-phage defense nuclease function, a $250,000 NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences grant (CFDA 47.049, LEAPS-MPS) on dynamic polymer networks, a $362,494 NSF Integrative Activities award (CFDA 47.083) for a next-generation fast neutron detector for nuclear physics, and multiple NSF Directorate for Undergraduate Education awards supporting computational physics faculty development and sports analytics curriculum innovation.

Davidson College appears as a sub-recipient on four grant sub-awards, collaborating with Albany Medical College (two sub-awards providing guidance on social influences and reward learning), the University of Virginia (one sub-award with Dr. Brian Eiler contributing expertise in complex systems modeling and quantitative behavioral analysis), and Duke University (one sub-award in which Kevin Davis serves as principal investigator for research computing capacity expansion at North Carolina minority-serving institutions and smaller institutions). Six grants reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and will face renewal decisions or recompete. The college's institutional research infrastructure sits across the Department of the Army (12 task orders under BOA DAKF4074A0209) and multiple Army IDIQs (DAKF4076A0209, DAKF4085C0722, DAKF4085C1543, DAKF4086C0186), though these appear to reflect Army ROTC or athletic research rather than procurement contracting. The top PSC category reflects the institution's educational mission: 46 awards cluster under Education/Training—Tuition/Registration/Membership Fees, with two additional awards in R&D Defense Other (Basic Research) and one in Special Studies/Analysis—Foreign/National Security Policy. No set-aside certifications or commercial contracting posture are present; Davidson operates as a non-profit research and educational institution competing for peer-reviewed federal grants.