The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees

The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees, Office of Research Division, operating as UCF, is a state-controlled, tax-exempt educational institution based in Orlando, Florida, that receives and executes federal research grants and contract awards across civilian, defense, and space agencies as a prime recipient and subcontractor. UCF competes full-and-open without set-aside designations, winning awards on technical merit across a portfolio spanning basic research, applied research, advanced development, and specialized technical services in engineering, space sciences, photonics, biomedical research, and STEM education.

UCF's recent activity shows sustained federal engagement: 3,518 total awards (91% as prime, 9% as sub) spanning 207 customer agencies with combined potential value of $722.3 million and combined dollars obligated of $2.51 billion. Award volume peaked at 220 in 2024 and declined to 181 in 2025, with 200 awards (combined potential value $42.5 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months—a significant recompete exposure. The top five customer agencies by award count—National Science Foundation (552 awards), Department of the Navy (304 awards, $147.3 million), NASA Shared Services Center (285 awards, $126.5 million), Army Materiel Command RDECOM (192 awards, $185.1 million), and Air Force Research Laboratory (107 awards, $11.2 million)—account for 41 percent of recent awards. By potential value, Army RDECOM dominates at $185.1 million, followed by Navy ($147.3 million) and NASA ($126.5 million); these three agencies anchor 70 percent of combined potential value.

Capability portfolio centers on research and development across defense, space, and civil agencies. Representative contracts demonstrate this breadth: a $9.99 million Army RDECOM definitive contract for Advanced Readiness Tutoring for Individual and Specialized Training (ARTIST) on soldier protection and performance (June 2026, Alafaya, FL), a $600 thousand Kennedy Space Center fixed-price contract for lunar regolith geotechnical finite element analysis supporting SWAMP Works (June 2026, Orlando, FL), an Office of Naval Research $1.05 million cost-no-fee definitive contract for algorithms to detect weak magnetic signals (April 2026, Alafaya, FL), and a $750 thousand NASA cooperative agreement for STEM engagement programming under the Office of STEM Engagement (September 2025, through August 2028). Grant portfolio is similarly diverse: the University of Central Florida received a $20 million NSF cooperative agreement (August 2026) to operate the National Commercialization and Translation Institute (NCTI) Pilot Program evaluating commercialization of late-stage deep-tech research in AI, quantum, biotechnology, and semiconductors; a $1.955 million NSF CyberAI Scholarship for Service award (August 2026) to train cybersecurity professionals in AI-enabled threat detection; and a $3.4 million Department of Education FIPSE award for Civil Interactions and Viewpoints for Interpersonal Competence (CIVIC) campuswide model (January 2026, through December 2029).

Vehicle position reflects heavy reliance on Army RDECOM indefinite delivery vehicles. The top parent IDV is W91CRB08D0015 with 91 task orders carrying $51.1 million combined potential value; the Navy IDV N0018907GZ002 holds 51 task orders valued at $2.6 million. UCF also participates in the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract awarded by the Missile Defense Agency (December 2025) with a $151 billion ceiling and ultimate completion date of December 28, 2035, structured for multi-domain defense research across air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid domains; an initial $500 delivery order (SHIELD Initial Order) was issued December 29, 2025. Additionally, a Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with a ten-year performance window through August 14, 2035, establishes UCF as a single-award supplier for biomedical research and specialized technical services to the Navy.

SCI-reported service-contract activity shows limited federal services invoicing relative to overall award portfolio: $718 thousand invoiced across FY2022–FY2025 on prime records, ranging from $100 thousand (FY2022) to $258 thousand (FY2023). Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts ran a median of $79.34 per hour, with 10th percentile at $18.83 and 90th percentile at $96.18—pricing posture consistent with university research labor across multiple seniority levels. FTE trajectory remained modest: 2.6 FTEs in FY2022 and 3.1 in FY2025, indicating that SCI-captured contracts represent a small slice of UCF's federal engagement; the vast majority of the university's federal footprint consists of research grants and specialized technical contracts outside the SCI reporting scope.

Subcontractor footprint is predominantly incoming rather than outgoing: UCF serves as a subcontractor to Triad National Security LLC on Los Alamos National Laboratory management operations, to the Regents of the University of Colorado on the Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) satellite mission (maintaining the science data center and performing algorithm development), to University of Pittsburgh on pavement quality assurance research (BAA 24-0044, concrete specimen data analysis), and to PAE Government Services on ICITAP Saudi Arabia stateside activities. Grant sub-awards flow to institutional partners including University of Texas at Houston (computational tools for genetic IBD mapping), University of Florida (multiple collaborative projects spanning environmental, biomedical, and civil engineering research), Oklahoma State University (data analysis and software prototyping for health informatics), and Case Western Reserve University (shared research activities). Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, sub-engagement averaged zero percent of contractor hours, indicating UCF builds delivery teams in-house on service contracts rather than relying on major subcontractor partners.

The Office of Research operates under a subsidiary, the University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc., a non-profit educational entity that administers awards and contracts on behalf of the university. Place of performance spans the main Alafaya, Florida campus (primary research facilities including the Transonic Impulse Shock Tube Expansion Facility and photonics laboratories), Orlando area locations, and distributed sites across Florida and subordinate research centers. UCF holds the designation of Hispanic-Serving Institution and state-controlled institution of higher learning, leveraging these characteristics in competitive federal research and education awards. The institution's research activity is heavily concentrated in STEM disciplines—engineering services (147 awards), research and development in physical and engineering sciences (58 awards), and education/administration (52 awards)—with primary award categories in defense applied research and exploratory development (248 awards), space science research (128 awards), and education/training service contracts (88 awards). Recent activity shows UCF pivoting toward strategic research partnerships in national security (AI-enabled cyber defense, advanced manufacturing, quantum sensing, directed energy), space technology (lunar exploration, satellite operations, STEM workforce development), and health-related STEM education (physician training, substance use disorder intervention). With 200 awards approaching recompete within twenty-four months and a demonstrated track record across NASA, DoD, and civilian research agencies, UCF faces both significant pipeline opportunity and substantial renewal risk in the near term.