The Trustees Of The University Of Pennsylvania

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, a private tax-exempt research university based in Philadelphia, operates as a prime recipient of federal research grants and contracts across biomedical sciences, engineering, computer science, and fundamental research, with no set-aside designations. The institution manages a sprawling federal award footprint spanning 11,726 total awards (prime and sub) with combined potential value of $1.49 billion and $18.45 billion in cumulative obligations—a 1,239% obligation-to-potential ratio reflecting the institution's role as a long-standing steward of multi-year, heavily obligated research programs rather than a vendor with discrete contract cycles.

University of Pennsylvania's federal customer base is heavily concentrated in research funding. The National Institutes of Health dominates the portfolio: the parent NIH entity accounts for 1,686 awards; the National Cancer Institute holds 731 awards ($1 million combined potential value); the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute carries 662 awards ($72.3 million); and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases leads by potential value with 561 awards worth $357.7 million combined. The National Science Foundation is the second-largest funder by award count (945 awards). These five customer categories account for 39% of all awards. By potential value, NIAID, NICHD ($143.4 million over 246 awards), and NHLBI dominate, representing 42% of combined potential value. The institution served 265 distinct customer agencies across federal sources, a breadth consistent with a research university rather than a federal contractor.

Capability framing: University of Pennsylvania delivers biomedical research, life sciences research and development, clinical research services, and research infrastructure operations. Recent prime contract work includes targeted polymer-lipid nanoparticle platform development for protein degradation in Ewing sarcoma (FDA, $6.95 million, awarded September 2026, extending through 2031); investigating associations in liability outcomes (FDA, $4.98 million, September 2026–2030); and data analysis and harmonization services for genome processing (National Institute on Aging, $701.9 thousand, July 2026–2027). Federal grant work is massive and diverse: the institution is a recipient on hundreds of NIH project grants in domains including cancer research, neurodevelopmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, aging, and mental health. Representative recent grants include optimization of tag-targeted trimethoprim PROTACs for cancer research (National Cancer Institute, $110 thousand, Cancer Research Manpower program CFDA 93.398, February 2027–2030), pediatric pathology foundation models for epigenetic biomarker discovery in childhood cancers (NCI, $100 thousand, January 2027–July 2029), and investigation of magnetic resonance imaging approaches for identifying neurodegeneration in ALS (NINDS, $203 thousand, September 2026–July 2028).

Activity has been volatile year-to-year: 612 awards in FY2023, spiking to 1,031 in FY2024, declining to 880 in FY2025, and 672 in FY2026, with only 28 awards recorded in FY2027 (reflecting the snapshot date of October 2026). A recompete cliff of $161.5 million in combined potential value faces expiration in the next twenty-four months across 927 awards—a substantial renewal pipeline.

University of Pennsylvania operates as a prime contractor (84% of awards) and prime recipient, with subcontractor and sub-recipient engagement at 16%. SCI-reportable federal service contracts show $62.6 million in invoiced revenue from FY2022 through FY2025 (prime records), with FY2024 peak of $34.9 million across 80 FTEs. Government-paid hourly rates on service contracts ranged from a 10th percentile of $58.67/hr to a 90th percentile of $388.90/hr (median $122.81/hr). Across prime service contracts, subcontractors performed 9% of total contractor hours, with 78 named subcontractors identified—indicating reliance on internal faculty and staff labor with selective sub-engagement for specialized services.

The institution holds a multiple-award indefinite-delivery contract for in vitro assessment of antimicrobial activity (NIAD, $2,500 ceiling, September 2026–September 2036), and is named on several parent vehicles including Indefinite Delivery Contract DOCSB134107CQ0024 (22 task orders, $4.5 million), Basic Ordering Agreement N0018918GZ019 (22 task orders, $707 thousand), and Indefinite Delivery Contract W91WAW10D0018 (15 task orders, $42.4 million).

Teaming and sub-recipient patterns reflect academic research structure: the institution subcontracts with and receives sub-awards from peer research institutions including Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (multiple neurodevelopmental and cancer research roles), Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Northwestern University, Mayo Clinic, Drexel University, and University of Pittsburgh. Named sub-recipients perform specialized research functions—structural biology (Drexel), cohort data management (University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio), and animal model development (Children's Hospital). The institution also serves as a sub-recipient under other universities' prime grants, including work under Johns Hopkins (research support for long-acting antiretroviral programs, HIV research), Columbia University (hematopoietic cell biology), and UCLA (mRNA vaccine design).

No SBA set-asides, SBIR/STTR programs, or 8(a) designations appear in the award record—consistent with the university's status as a private, tax-exempt research institution ineligible for such designations. Ownership is tax-exempt corporate structure; the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania is the sole operating entity.

The institution's federal portfolio is characteristic of a leading research university: dominance of NIH grant awards, diversified NSF support, focus on training and workforce development (numerous T32 and F32 fellowship awards in the source), and infrastructure roles as a data coordinating center, biorepository operator, and regional research hub. The scale ($1.49 billion potential value, $18.45 billion obligated) and depth (11,726 awards, 265 customer agencies, 60+ years of federal engagement) position University of Pennsylvania as one of the nation's largest recipients of federal research funding.