University Of Hawaii

University Of Hawaii At Manoa, a comprehensive public research university and Native Hawaiian-serving institution operating as a state government entity within the University of Hawaii System, receives federal awards as a prime recipient (92% of recent awards) and subrecipient across research, education, and specialized technical services spanning space science, oceanography, biomedical research, and workforce development. The institution competes on full-and-open federal research solicitations without set-aside designation, operating as a premier research partner to civilian federal agencies rather than a defense contractor.

The university's capability portfolio centers on space and planetary science, oceanographic and marine research, biomedical and health sciences research, environmental sciences, STEM education and workforce development, and specialized infrastructure management. Recent representative work includes a $5.34 million cost-no-fee definitive contract with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (awarded July 2026) to develop the L-MAPS microwave spectrometer with ground-penetrating radar subsystem for the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Instruments program; an $85.49 million single-award indefinite-delivery contract with NASA Headquarters (awarded July 2024, running through December 2033) for management and operations of the Infrared Telescope Facility; and a $2.121 million purchase order from NOAA (awarded October 2026, extending through September 2031) to provide operational support, monitoring, maintenance, and technical support for shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler systems aboard NOAA research vessels. The university also operates the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (CIMAR), a mission-critical partnership with NOAA conducting oceanographic monitoring, ecosystem research, and applied science across eight research themes in the Pacific Islands region.

Customer concentration is distributed across civilian research agencies with high concentration in fundamental science funding. The top five funders—National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute ($545.7 million combined potential value across 91 awards), NASA Shared Services Center ($259.7 million across 725 awards), NASA Headquarters ($203.5 million across 96 awards), NOAA ($18.5 million across 434 awards), and NSF ($931 awards)—account for significant portfolio share. The gap between award counts (NSF leads with 931 awards, NASA second with 725) and dollar value (NIH NCI leads by dollars, NASA second) reflects NSF's predominance in discrete smaller research grants versus NASA's concentration in larger space-science and facilities-management contracts. The university serves 255 distinct federal agencies, indicating broad research engagement across federal government.

Activity has sustained high volume and dollar value. The recent five-year trajectory shows 323 awards in 2023, 398 in 2024, declining to 288 in 2025 and 150 in 2026, reflecting the snapshot date of October 2026 (partial-year capture). Combined potential value across all 5,931 awards in the dataset is $1.31 billion, with $9.5 billion in obligated dollars reflecting the university's role as a recipient of federal grant funding (grant awards obligate dollars incrementally across multi-year periods, producing obligation-to-potential-value ratios exceeding 100%). Within the next twenty-four months, 378 awards with combined potential value of $74.9 million reach ultimate completion, creating a substantial recompete pipeline.

The university holds a single-award IDC with NASA Headquarters (ceiling $85.49 million through December 2033) for IRTF management and operations—the institution's anchor vehicle. Additional contract vehicles include multiple Naval Facilities Engineering Command IDCs and several NSF and NOAA cooperative agreements; the top parent vehicle is an Air Force IDC (F2960101D0083) with 42 task orders valued at $77.9 million. However, the university's federal footprint is dominated by research grants and cooperative agreements rather than contract task orders, reflecting its primary role as a research institution.

The university operates as a prime on the vast majority of awards (92%) and rarely subcontracts. Across SCI-reportable federal service contracts (a subset covering only contracts above the $150,000 threshold), the university invoiced $6.5 million across FY2022–FY2025, with government-paid median hourly rates around $66.48/hr and senior-labor rates reaching $72.33/hr at the 90th percentile. FTE trajectory in SCI records shows volatility (11.8 FTEs in FY2022 rising to 96.6 in FY2024, then falling to 9.9 in FY2025), reflecting the institution's episodic engagement on large service-delivery contracts rather than sustained staff augmentation. The university brings its own internal workforce to federal research projects; subcontractor engagement in SCI records averaged 0% of hours, indicating in-house delivery on reportable service contracts. Named subcontracts (from the grant and sub-award sections) show the university receives federal funding as a sub-recipient from peer research institutions—Duke University, NSF-awarded primes, and other universities—on collaborative research projects where UH delivers specific research or technical components.

The institution's federal strategy leverages its position as a land-grant research university with specialized infrastructure (Infrared Telescope Facility, oceanographic platforms, marine biology facilities), expertise in Pacific Island environmental and health sciences, and designation as a Native Hawaiian-serving institution, enabling alignment with federal priorities in indigenous-serving education, climate and ocean research, and Pacific regional resilience. The recompete cliff of $74.9 million over twenty-four months presents both risk and opportunity; the university's long-term relationships with NSF, NASA, NIH, and NOAA and its exclusive position managing critical federal research infrastructure (IRTF) provide incumbent recompete advantage on large parent vehicles. Competitive intensity remains high across NSF research grants, which constitute the largest share of award count; differentiation flows from scientific merit, specialized facilities, and regional expertise rather than pricing or set-aside positioning.