University Of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.

University Of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc. (operating as UCFRF) is a tax-exempt research organization affiliated with the University of Central Florida that operates as a federal contractor and grant recipient, with 43% of recent awards as prime and 57% as subcontractor to defense and civilian research primes. UCFRF is designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution and competes in full-and-open procurement without set-aside protections, focusing on specialized science and engineering research, advanced materials development, and technology cluster management.

UCFRF's capability portfolio centers on advanced materials science, fiber optics fabrication, acoustic and sensor technologies, and regional economic development infrastructure. Recent prime contract work includes a $698 thousand firm fixed-price definitive contract awarded September 30, 2026, by the General Services Administration on behalf of the Small Business Administration's Office of Investment and Innovation to establish and manage Regional Innovation Clusters involving public-private partnerships aligned with regional technology strengths in a priority industry, with performance through September 29, 2028. UCFRF also holds purchase orders from NASA's Shared Services Center for Lunabotics competition support, including $113 thousand for program management and facility rental at Kennedy Space Center and $117 thousand for lunar regolith simulant production through the Exolith Lab—work the source notes UCFRF performs as the sole provider capable of producing lunar regolith simulants at required fidelity and volume as part of NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. Naval Sea Systems Command awarded $100 thousand for development and acquisition of hollow-core fiber optics for laser transduction research and $23.5 thousand for linear piezoelectric transducer array development, both sole-source procurements recognizing UCFRF as the only Hispanic-Serving Institution with required fiber draw tower fabrication capability.

Customer concentration is fragmented across research agencies. The top five customers by award count account for 36% of awards, led by the Department of the Navy's Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Air Warfare Center (6 awards), followed by the Small Business Administration's Office of Investments and Innovations (3 awards), NASA's Shared Services Center (3 awards, $249 thousand combined potential value), and the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration and NASA's Johnson Space Center (2 awards each). However, dollar concentration diverges: the SBA's Office of Performance Management and the Chief Financial Officer anchors 94% combined potential value with a single $699 thousand award, while the Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center, Austin carries $337 thousand, and NASA's Shared Services Center holds $249 thousand. Activity has grown from six awards in 2022 to eleven in 2024, then declined to three in 2025 and two in 2026. Two awards with ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $799 thousand.

In its subcontractor role, UCFRF delivers research and technical support services to Stracon Services Group, LLC on Internal Command Support Services (ICSS) task orders supporting Naval Air Warfare Center Test and Evaluation Squadron (NAWCTSD) from 2022 through 2024; to Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC on management and operating contract work for Y-12 National Security Complex and Pantex Plant; to Lockheed Martin Corporation on High Enthalpy Aperture Technology (HEAT) fused silica fiber model validation; to Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. as a direct support organization for an educational institution; and to Mainstream Engineering Corp on U.S. Army Small Technology Transfer Research (STTR) program work supporting blackwater treatment system development. Across SCI-reportable service contracts, UCFRF shows 9 records as a named subcontractor (0 as prime) from fiscal years 2022 through 2025, with FTE delivery scaling from 8.8 FTEs in FY2022 to 11.2 FTEs in FY2024 and declining to 0.3 FTEs in FY2025.

On the prime grant side, UCFRF has received cooperative agreements and project grants from the Small Business Administration's Office of Investments and Innovations for the FAST (Funding for Accelerating Science and Technology) program across multiple award cycles (2022, 2023, 2024), supporting small-business technology competitiveness and innovation commercialization in Florida. The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration awarded $11 million in a project grant from September 8, 2022, through January 8, 2025, to build Central Florida's semiconductor cluster through upgrades to the Center for Neovation Advanced Manufacturing facility and alignment of regional education and training programs with semiconductor industry needs. The National Endowment for the Arts funded a project grant in August 2024 for puppetry-building and interviewing workshops for incarcerated individuals in Osceola County, Florida. In its grant subrecipient role, UCFRF has received subawards as a research partner under prime recipients including the University of Miami (CHARM P30 renewal, February 2025), Oregon State University (NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, July 2024), the University of Texas at El Paso (DOD-funded research program aligned to National Defense Science and Technology Strategy, December 2024), Florida International University (cyber manufacturing and 3D printing data acquisition system development, June 2023), and Corporation for Public Broadcasting (RTL Learning Neighborhood early-learning initiative, September 2023 and December 2024). UCFRF operates under its parent, The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees, Office of Research.