University Of Georgia

The University of Georgia's Sponsored Projects Administration Division, doing business as the Sponsored Program Department, operates as a prime recipient and contractor providing specialized research and diagnostic testing services to federal agencies across agriculture, veterinary medicine, environmental science, and STEM education as a state government entity and 1862 land-grant institution. The division is a child entity of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and competes in full-and-open markets without SBA set-asides, holding a 94% prime award share across 1,142 recent federal awards worth $46.5 million in potential value.

University of Georgia's federal footprint concentrates heavily on USDA partnerships. The top five customers by potential value account for 93% of combined value, anchored by the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (45 awards, $21.3 million combined potential value) and APHIS Marketing and Regulatory Programs Business Services (32 awards, $20.8 million). The National Institute of Food and Agriculture accounts for 268 awards by count, though smaller individual values. The division serves 131 distinct federal agencies overall, with recent awards spanning the Departments of Education, Commerce, Energy, Interior, and Defense, as well as the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Environmental Protection Agency.

Core capabilities center on animal disease diagnostic testing and laboratory analysis services. The division delivers testing for highly pathogenic avian influenza, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, classical and African swine fever, antimicrobial resistance and susceptibility (AMR/AST), whole genome sequencing, and SARS-CoV-2 research under a $20 million APHIS Veterinary Services indefinite delivery contract (IDV) awarded September 7, 2021, through August 31, 2026. Representative recent delivery orders include a $35,014.95 NAHL Georgia Athens BSE testing order (June 2026), a $55,000 CSF/ASF testing delivery order (March 2025), and a $52,575 NAHLN diagnostic testing services order (March 2025). The division also performs plant tissue analysis for total carbon, nitrogen, and mineral elements under a $250,000 single-award USDA Agricultural Research Service indefinite delivery contract (Tifton, Georgia facility), and provides specialized analytical services including 800 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry access for EPA research (valued at $50,400 through September 2028). Place of performance spans multiple locations: Athens and Tifton, Georgia; Ames, Iowa; and where required by specific projects across Georgia's 159 counties through extension networks.

Federal grant work dominates the portfolio's activity by volume and dollars obligated. The division acts as prime recipient on formula grants from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) supporting cooperative extension and agricultural research, including the Smith-Lever Extension Funding Program ($17.27 million, October 2025–September 2030, CFDA 10.511), the Hatch Act Payments to Agricultural Experiment Stations ($9.22 million, October 2025–September 2027, CFDA 10.203), and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program ($2.285 million, October 2025–September 2030, CFDA 10.514). The division also holds cooperative agreements supporting disease surveillance and management: a $747,388 APHIS cooperative agreement for SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance (August 2023–August 2025) and a $247,764 cooperative agreement with APHIS Wildlife Services for chronic wasting disease (CWD) detection assay development (September 2024–September 2025, with sub-award to Varigen Biosciences Corp). Grant work includes research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) supporting mathematics, computer systems, and life sciences research (CFDA 47.049, 47.070, 47.074, 47.084); the Department of Education supporting TRIO student services and undergraduate research instruction (CFDA 84.042); the Department of Energy Office of Science supporting switchgrass genomics research ($2.18 million, September 2025–August 2026, CFDA 81.049); the National Endowment for the Humanities supporting digitization of Georgia newspapers and cultural preservation ($314,538–$302,070 for newspaper digitization cycles, CFDA 45.149); and the Federal Highway Administration's Safe Streets and Roads for All program ($280,000 for traffic safety planning, January 2026–January 2029, CFDA 20.939). The division receives grant awards for forestry research and extension under the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Program ($2.299 million, October 2025–September 2027, CFDA 10.202) and manages Small Business Development Centers services for the SBA (CFDA 59.037). Federal grant totals obligated ($1.15 billion across all awards) far exceed contract potential values, reflecting formula and continuation funding streams that recur annually.

Recent activity shows stable annual award volume: 50 awards in 2022, 59 in 2023, 56 in 2024, and 60 in 2025. Fifty-seven awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $586,000—a modest recompete exposure given the division's reliance on formula grants and standing IDV arrangements with APHIS that have been renewed multiple times since 2016. The division operates a multi-location research and extension infrastructure spanning four major campuses (Athens, Fort Valley, Tifton, Griffin) and eleven research and education centers distributed across Georgia, delivering programming through 167 county extension offices in all 159 Georgia counties. Diagnostic testing facilities in Athens and Ames, Iowa support animal health surveillance; plant analysis capabilities operate in Tifton. The division sustains no material subcontractor footprint on its own federal awards—it acts as prime on 94% of recent awards and sub on only 6%. As a sub-recipient, the division appears on cooperative agreements where University of Georgia researchers collaborate with partner institutions (e.g., sub-awards from University of Florida, University of Iowa, Cornell University) to deliver research components; these arrangements reflect peer collaboration in grant-supported research rather than traditional federal subcontracting. The division does not compete on federal contract vehicles outside of full-and-open procurements and holds no GSA Schedules, GWACs, or agency-wide IDIQs in its own name.