The University Of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, a public research institution and state government entity headquartered in University, Mississippi, acts as a prime recipient on federal grants and a prime contractor on federal research and education service contracts, competing in full-and-open procurement without SBA set-aside designations. The university is not a federal contractor vehicle holder but participates in federal research and service delivery across 176 distinct customer agencies through a diversified portfolio of 1,272 recent awards totaling $294.5 million in combined potential value, with $1.1 billion in total obligated dollars reflecting multi-year funding and option exercises.

The university's federal footprint centers on research, education, and specialized service delivery across science, engineering, biomedical disciplines, and facility operations. Concrete capability work spans basic and applied research in materials science, environmental sciences, computational biology, and physics; graduate and undergraduate STEM education and workforce development; K-12 school nutrition program management and technical assistance through the federally funded Institute of Child Nutrition; cannabis cultivation, extraction, purification, and analytical services for substance use disorder research under a $25 million indefinite delivery contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (running through March 2028); Navy-funded NROTC educational services and tuition support; and specialized acoustic research and calibration services through the National Center for Physical Acoustics. Representative work includes a $7.9 million Army Corps of Engineers definitive contract for graphene-enabled technologies research (BAA 23-0013), a $4.99 million cooperative agreement with NSF for the National STEM Teacher Corps Pilot Program in Mississippi (CFDA 47.076), a $5 million USDA cooperative agreement supporting the Institute of Child Nutrition, and a $750 thousand NASA cooperative agreement for additive manufacturing of metasurfaces for antenna systems.

Customer concentration is fragmented across civilian and defense agencies. By award count, the National Science Foundation leads with 117 awards, followed by NASA's Shared Services Center (75 awards, $29.4 million), the USDA Agricultural Research Service (63 awards), and the Department of Navy and Department of Army (52 awards each). By dollar value, the National Institute on Drug Abuse dominates at $120 million across 17 awards—almost entirely the $25 million IDC ceiling—followed by NASA Shared Services ($29.4 million across 75 awards), the Army Corps of Engineers ERDC ($29.2 million across 17 awards), and multiple smaller programs. The tension between volume and dollars reflects the university's core strength: high-volume basic and applied research funding from NSF and NASA paired with mission-critical specialized service contracts (cannabis research, school nutrition expertise) that command substantial ceiling values.

Activity has moderated after a peak in 2024. Awards per year show 74 in 2022, growing to 107 in 2024, then declining to 63 in 2025 and 16 projected in 2026—a pattern consistent with multi-year grant cycles and the timing of NSF, NIH, and agency discretionary awards. Sixty-four awards are due for completion within the next twenty-four months, representing $23 million in combined potential value and creating recompete exposure across NSF, NASA, USDA, and DoD research accounts.

Teaming and subcontracting activity is minimal. The university operates as a prime on 92 percent of awards (1,172 of 1,272), with only 100 sub-awards on contract and grant work. As a prime, the university subcontracts sparingly: across SCI-reportable service contracts (the only segment with sub-engagement data), subs accounted for 1 percent of total contractor hours. Named sub-relationships in the grant portfolio include Mississippi State University and the University of Southern Mississippi as co-investigators and research collaborators on NSF and Army Corps of Engineers projects; these partnerships reflect regional research consortia and joint solicitation responses rather than traditional prime-to-sub delivery models.

SCI-reported service contract invoicing—a conservative metric capturing only contracts above $150 thousand and excluding research grants, goods, and non-federal revenue—shows $3.2 million across federal service contracts in FY2022–FY2024 (FY2022: $876 thousand; FY2023: $1.2 million; FY2024: $1.1 million). The SCI dataset indicates roughly 17–20 FTEs dedicated to federal service contracts annually. Government-paid hourly rates on federal services span $24–$34 per hour at the median, reflecting a mix of professional, technical, and administrative labor supporting education delivery, research administration, and specialized support services. This rate posture and FTE scale characterize the university's service-contract footprint as modest relative to its total federal research and education revenue; the $25 million NIDA cannabis production IDC, SCI-reportable only for individual task orders, represents the largest single federal service commitment.

The university holds no government-wide acquisition vehicles (GWACs), IDIQs, or schedules as a prime contractor. It participates in federal procurement as a service recipient and research performer under customer-issued vehicles—Navy BPAs for NROTC education (Basic Ordering Agreement N0018919GZ044, 21 task orders, $4.7 million combined value), USDA blanket purchase agreements for laboratory services ($102 thousand across 32 calls), and Army Corps IDCs for research support. The university's primary contracting posture is direct award from federal agencies via discretionary grants, cooperative agreements, and task order solicitation.

Federal grant work dominates the portfolio quantitatively and in terms of strategic positioning. Over the past three years, the university has received competitive NSF CAREER awards in chemistry, physics, engineering, and integrative sciences; cooperative agreements from NASA for STEM engagement and research; NIH/NIGMS and NIDA support for biomedical research, addiction science, and health disparities; USDA funding for food and nutrition programs; and DOD research support through Army and Navy channels. The university acts as prime grant recipient on core research, education, and service delivery; it also participates as a sub-recipient in larger consortia (e.g., Mississippi Nano-Bio and Immunoengineering Consortium led by external institution, NSF E-RISE RII program) where specialized expertise in materials, bioengineering, or regional STEM capacity contributes to multi-institutional goals. Grant funding typically flows to faculty research groups, central research administration, and school-level units (e.g., School of Pharmacy, Institute of Child Nutrition), creating a decentralized award management structure aligned with academic department and center leadership.

The university competes without institutional set-aside status and in full-and-open competitions. Its federal advantage derives from institutional research capacity, specialized facilities (National Center for Physical Acoustics, zebrafish aquaculture cores, nanofabrication lab), established federal compliance infrastructure, and mission alignment with agency priorities in STEM workforce development, K-12 education support, and basic research across physical, life, and social sciences. Recent recompete exposure and the moderation in annual award volume suggest a competitive environment in NSF and NASA peer review; the scale and continuity of the $25 million NIDA cannabis IDC and $5 million USDA Institute of Child Nutrition cooperative agreements anchor institutional revenue stability independent of annual discretionary research cycles.