University Of Louisville

University Of Louisville Office Of Research & Innovation Division, a tax-exempt non-profit public research university and state-controlled institution of higher learning headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, acts as a prime recipient and contractor for federal grants and clinical service contracts, delivering specialized physician services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and conducting federally funded research across the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and defense agencies. The institution competes full-and-open with no set-aside designation; its award portfolio spans 2,146 prime and sub awards (90% prime) with combined potential value of $534.9 million, though obligated dollars ($2.43 billion) reflect ongoing multi-year grant and contract execution across a highly diversified customer base.

The University's federal footprint clusters in two distinct capability areas. First, clinical services: UofL operates as the prime contractor providing specialized physician services (radiology, anesthesiology, gynecology, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, and neurology) to the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Integrated Service Network 9 (VISN 9), Louisville region. Recent contract examples include a $23.6 million radiology WRVU (work relative value unit) services IDC with ceiling extending through September 2026; a $5.5 million general surgery services definitive contract awarded December 2025 to VISN 9; and delivery orders for anesthesiology ($11.1 million ceiling IDC), gynecology ($2.0 million ceiling), and thoracic surgery services under single-award parent vehicles. Place of performance is Louisville, Kentucky across all VA clinical contracts. Second, research funding: UofL receives grant awards from NIH (particularly NIAID, NIGMS, NHLBI, NCI, NIDDK), NSF, and defense health agencies for biomedical and basic science investigation in infectious disease, metabolic health, neurology, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and environmental health. Representative recent grants include a $2.65 million NIGMS COBRE award to establish the Nutrition and Metabolic Health Center (NMHC); a $1.29 million Defense Health Agency grant on PFAS reduction in veterans; a $3.05 million NIEHS grant on RNA modifications in apolipoprotein regulation; and dozens of smaller project grants ($300K–$700K range) in areas such as HIV therapeutics, spinal cord injury recovery, and organ-on-chip technologies.

Customer concentration by award count centers on NIH ($301 awards), NSF ($167), and VISN 9 ($158 awards, $193 million combined potential value). By potential value, NIAID ($228.7 million across 78 awards) and VISN 9 ($193 million) dominate, reflecting UofL's strength in infectious disease research and established VA clinical partnership. The divergence between count-based and value-based rankings indicates many smaller research grants (NSF, education awards) alongside fewer but high-dollar clinical service contracts and large center awards. Activity has grown: 2022–2024 saw 97–156 awards annually; 2025–2026 shows decline (96 and 46 awards respectively) likely reflecting delayed reporting of new awards rather than true volume shift. Recompete cliff is modest: 154 awards with ultimate completion dates in the next 24 months carry combined potential value of $10.9 million, representing manageable renewal risk.

SCI-reportable invoicing (federal service contracts above $150K threshold) totaled $9.5 million across FY2022–FY2024, with $6.5 million in FY2022 and $3.0 million in FY2023, then zero reported in FY2024. This decline reflects either reporting lag or shift toward grant rather than service contract revenue. FTE trajectory tracked 19.5 FTEs in FY2022 (split across prime and sub records) to 16.7 in FY2023 and zero in FY2024 reporting. Government-paid hourly rates on prime service contracts ranged from $26/hr (10th percentile) to $233/hr (90th percentile), with median $132.64/hr, indicating a mix of clinical and administrative labor. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed 0% of total hours, indicating UofL delivers its own service labor rather than subcontracting.

UofL operates across three parent contract vehicles: GSA Schedule 84 (GS04B59133), a basic ordering agreement with 44 task orders valued at $37.5 million, used for administrative and research support services; and two VA indefinite delivery contracts (F0160079D0272 and others) for clinical services. The institution does not hold seats on major GWACs such as OASIS+ or Alliant; its contracting occurs primarily through single-award and small-set of agency-specific IDCs and direct GSA Schedule ordering.

The University acts as recipient on federal research grants through its Office of Research & Innovation Division and holds prime positions on research cooperatives and consortia (e.g., Kentucky Manufacturing Extension Partnership as lead, sub-recipient roles on multi-university NIH and NSF collaborative awards). When subcontracting on research, UofL partners with peer research universities (University of Pittsburgh, University of Washington, University of Chicago, Temple University, Vanderbilt University) as sub-recipients on federal grants, delivering specialized research services (genomic analysis, animal studies, metabolomics core services) defined in detailed scopes of work. Named sub-awardees include University of Alabama at Birmingham (clinical trial site coordination, congenital CMV study), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (IoT cybersecurity training), and University of Florida (metabolomics and microbiome analysis cores), indicating a pattern of teaming with complementary research capabilities rather than competitive subcontracting.

Corporate structure lists University Of Louisville as a named subsidiary under itself, consistent with the entity's status as a state-controlled educational institution with legal autonomy within the Commonwealth of Kentucky system.