The University Of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, a public research institution based in University, Mississippi, operates as a federal prime recipient and contractor delivering research, education, and specialized services across a broad portfolio of federal agencies. The university functions almost entirely as a prime (92% of awards) rather than a subcontractor, with no SBA designations or set-aside posture—all awards are full-and-open competitive or sole-source.

The university's concrete federal capability portfolio spans basic research funding, graduate education and workforce development, specialized facility services, and applied research across engineering, biomedical sciences, physical sciences, and education disciplines. Representative examples include a $25 million Indefinite Delivery Contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse for cannabis cultivation, extraction, purification, and analytical services for substance use disorder research; a $4.96 million Army Corps of Engineers contract for graphene-enabled technologies research supporting ground combat operations (ultimate completion September 2028); a $3.4 million NASA cooperative agreement for the Mississippi Space Grant program providing STEM education and workforce development (award date June 2025, completion May 2029); a $7.92 million Army Corps of Engineers definitive contract for levee improvement research (ultimate completion November 2026); a $949,560 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management contract for critical minerals brine pool geophysical and geochemical data acquisition in the Gulf of Mexico using autonomous underwater vehicles (award date September 2026, completion September 2029); and a $348,644 Department of Transportation contract for rocket propulsion and sonic boom acoustic propagation modeling software development (ultimate completion March 2027).

Customer concentration is diffuse across 175 distinct agencies. The National Science Foundation leads by award count (118 awards), followed by NASA Shared Services Center (75 awards, $29.4 million), and Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (63 awards, $366 thousand). By potential value, the National Institute on Drug Abuse dominates ($120 million across 17 awards), followed by NASA Shared Services Center ($29.4 million across 75 awards), and Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center ($29.2 million across 17 awards). This split signals deep engagement with research funding agencies (NSF, NIH, NASA) on volume, but concentration of large dollar values in specialized research contracts (NIDA cannabis production, ERDC research).

The university holds positions on multiple parent vehicles. A Blanket Purchase Agreement with USDA Agricultural Research Service (AG4431B100023) carries 32 task orders. A Basic Ordering Agreement with Department of the Navy (N0018919GZ044) supports 22 task orders valued at $4.7 million combined. An Indefinite Delivery Contract with Department of the Navy (N0014006G0067) carries 16 task orders worth $3.6 million. These vehicles position the university as a reliable supplier of laboratory services, research support, and educational services to defense and civilian research agencies.

Activity has declined sharply year over year: 77 awards in 2023, 107 in 2024, 66 in 2025, 27 in 2026, and 1 in 2027. This contraction reflects timing of award data in the source (snapshot through 2027-01-01). Sixty-two awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $20.7 million, representing significant recompete exposure.

On federal service contracts captured in the Service Contract Inventory dataset (a $3.7 million subset of federal services activity across FY2022–FY2025), the university reported roughly 17–20 FTEs across four to five prime contracts per fiscal year. SCI-reportable invoiced revenue ran approximately $876 thousand (FY2022) to $1.2 million (FY2023), with median government-paid rates around $26.61/hr, ranging from $24.10/hr (10th percentile) to $34.27/hr (90th percentile)—consistent with academic and research support labor. The university subcontracted approximately 1% of hours on these service contracts to two named subcontractors, indicating an internal-delivery model.

The university functions as a prime on nearly all work and rarely subcontracts to larger systems integrators; instead, it sources specialized sub-recipients for collaborative research (for example, Mississippi State University, University of Southern Mississippi, and University of Mississippi Medical Center on multi-institutional grants). This posture reflects the research-university funding model, where the institution anchors grants as the administrative and research lead and engages academic and medical partners as sub-recipients rather than contracting to commercial prime integrators.

The top category concentration runs across Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (67 awards), Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (45 awards), and Other Professional Equipment Merchant Wholesalers (35 awards). The top Product and Service Code is Laboratory Equipment and Supplies (63 awards), followed by Education/Training—Tuition and Fees (61 awards), reflecting the university's role as both a research infrastructure provider and federal education partner. A $5 million Cooperative Agreement from USDA Food and Nutrition Service supports the Institute of Child Nutrition, the only federally funded national center dedicated to strengthening K-12 school nutrition programs nationwide, underscoring specialized education and capacity-building services. No parent contract vehicles, GWACs, or agency-wide IDIQs appear in the top positions; the university competes and wins awards on agency-specific solicitations, BAAs, and NSF programs rather than via large government-wide contract vehicles.