University Of California, San Diego

University Of California, San Diego, a public research institution and subsidiary of the State of California for federal grant administration, operates as a prime recipient of federal research grants in biomedical science and public health, with 98% of recent awards positioned as prime grants rather than subgrant or contract work. UC San Diego serves eight distinct federal customer agencies across 145 awards spanning more than two decades, though recent activity volume is sparse — only four awards across the five most recent fiscal years (2011, 2012, 2022, 2024, 2025).

UC San Diego's customer footprint is dominated by defense and veteran health agencies. The Department of the Navy and its Bureau of Medicine and Surgery account for 97 combined awards (67% of the award count), anchored by a $1.2 million combined potential value under Navy medical research vehicles. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 22 contributes 21 awards with $258 thousand combined potential value. The Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Department of the Air Force Air Education and Training Command round out the active customer set with two awards each. The Navy's concentration in both volume and dollars reflects UC San Diego's role as a medical research institution supporting military and veteran health priorities; the two rankings track closely, indicating that Navy's dominance spans both award frequency and funding magnitude.

UC San Diego places task orders under multiple Navy indefinite-delivery vehicles, with the largest being Indefinite Delivery Contract N0024405D0072, which carries 16 task orders and $832 thousand combined potential value. The vendor's service delivery is concentrated in reference laboratory testing (90 awards) and medical laboratory services (78 awards under NAICS Medical Laboratories), with smaller volumes in laboratory equipment and supplies and basic research. Representative recent work includes a $2.528 million four-year project grant from the Defense Health Agency under the Military Medical Research and Development program (CFDA 12.420) for epigenome engineering research targeting chronic pain in service members, awarded June 1, 2022 and completing May 31, 2026. Combined obligated dollars ($8.2 million) substantially exceed combined potential value ($2.2 million), indicating that awarded work has been fully or over-obligated relative to ceiling amounts, typical of mature research grants with revised budgets and scope modifications.