Trustees Of Boston University

Trustees of Boston University, a tax-exempt private research university headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, operates as a recipient and prime contractor on federal research grants and contracts across civilian and defense agencies without set-aside designations. The institution competes in full-and-open federal research markets, winning awards based on scientific and technical merit from 175 distinct customer agencies across the full spectrum of federal R&D priorities. Boston University's federal footprint spans 4,236 total awards (91% prime, 9% sub) valued at $785.7 million in combined potential value, with $3.56 billion obligated across the award portfolio—reflecting multi-year research funding patterns characteristic of leading research universities.

Boston University's capability portfolio is grounded in hypothesis-driven research across biomedical, physical, earth, and space sciences. Representative prime contract work includes a $136.6 million single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC) with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for vaccine and biologic evaluation and testing services (awarded September 2025, extending through September 2035), and a $58 million IDC with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for Framingham Heart Study operations and protocol development. A recent $2.43 million delivery order under the NHLBI contract (April 2026) supported Task Area B of the Framingham Heart Study, focusing on protocol development and basic examination services. Federal grant work includes competitive awards across the National Science Foundation (CAREER grants in materials science, computer science, and chemistry), the National Institutes of Health (project grants in neuroscience, cancer biology, and infectious disease), NASA (space and Earth science research), and the Department of Defense (basic and applied research in materials and energy systems). Boston University acts as prime recipient on these awards and receives sub-awards from collaborative institutions; the source documents show Boston University as sub-awardee to Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, University of Illinois, and others on multi-institutional research initiatives.

Customer concentration is diffuse across federal R&D agencies. The top five funding agencies by award count—National Science Foundation (870 awards), NASA Shared Services Center (520 awards, $110.9 million), National Institutes of Health (255 awards), NASA (130 awards), and the Department of the Air Force (102 awards)—account for 44% of recent awards. By dollar value, the concentration is tighter: NASA Shared Services Center ($110.9 million), NASA Goddard Space Center ($26.5 million), NASA Headquarters ($14.5 million), NIH National Cancer Institute ($3.1 million), and the Office of Naval Research ($1.2 million) represent 20% of combined potential value. This divergence reflects Boston University's high volume of small to mid-sized research awards from NSF alongside larger space science awards from NASA.

Vehicle positioning is minimal in the source material; Boston University does not maintain an explicit presence on standard government-wide IDIQs, GWACs, or BPAs. The university holds the single-award Framingham Heart Study IDC with NHLBI and appears as a named awardee on NASA and NSF competitive grant vehicles, but competes predominantly through direct solicitation and agency-specific grant programs rather than through pre-positioned multiple-award schedules typical of commercial contractors.

Activity has remained stable over the past five years—219 awards in 2022 to 282 in 2024, with 250 in 2025 and 63 recorded in 2026 (year-to-date through early July). The recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months stands at 287 awards with combined potential value of $42.6 million—a material but manageable pipeline of awards facing ultimate completion and recompete cycles.

SCI-reported federal service contract activity is minimal relative to total award volume. From FY2022 through FY2024, Boston University reported $1.2 million in SCI-reportable invoiced amounts across prime service contracts, declining from $701 thousand in FY2023 to $362 thousand in FY2024. Workforce scale ranged from 1.5 to 3.0 FTEs across the reportable period. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates were approximately $149/hr, with senior labor pricing reaching $209/hr—a rate structure consistent with university-based research personnel. Across prime contracts, the sub-hours share averaged 0%, indicating Boston University performed work with its own staff rather than through subcontractor engagement on SCI-reportable service contracts.

Boston University's posture is entirely full-and-open competitive. The institution competes as a research entity in civilian R&D markets (NSF, NIH, NASA, NOAA) and selective defense science markets (DARPA, ONR, DTRA, RDECOM) without leveraging SBA set-asides, minority certifications, or veteran-owned designations. The university acts overwhelmingly as prime on research awards and occasionally partners as sub-recipient on multi-institutional grants led by peer research institutions. Teaming relationships are fluid and project-specific rather than structured. Named sub-award primes over the source period include Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, University of Illinois, University of Texas at Arlington, and others—reflecting collaborative science rather than a vendor subcontracting posture.