University Of Montana

University of Montana, operating through its Research and Sponsored Programs division, is a public state-controlled research institution that acts as a prime recipient and prime contractor for federal grants and service contracts in environmental monitoring, ecological research, biomedical science, and workforce development. The institution competes without set-asides and operates across multiple organizational units including Montana Technological University and Helena College University of Montana.

The university's federal work spans environmental and natural resource monitoring and restoration, biomedical research and vaccine development, climate adaptation and drought resilience, K-12 and higher-education workforce programs, and technical assistance for tribal and rural communities. Representative contract and grant work includes a $12.1 million definitive contract with the Administration for Community Living (HHS) to operate the Independent Living Training and Technical Assistance Center through September 2029, serving independent living network grantees nationwide; a $9.9 million definitive contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for vaccine adjuvant discovery (cost-no-fee, ultimate completion September 2029); a $3.6 million delivery order from the Defense Logistics Agency for installation and operation of snowpack and soil moisture monitoring sites in the Upper Missouri River Basin through September 2028; and a $750,000 cooperative agreement with NOAA for the Montana Regional Incubator in Drought Resiliency, delivering operational systems for soil moisture assessment, streamflow modeling, wind field generation, and fire weather forecasting through June 2028. Grant work includes $1.3 million from NIH to acquire a confocal and two-photon microscope for the Biospectroscopy Core Research Laboratory; $1.2 million from NIH for cobalt-oxo complex research on enzymatic bond activation; and $2.4 million from NSF for physics-informed machine learning applied to ice sheet dynamics and sea-level rise prediction.

Customer concentration is distributed across federal agencies. The National Science Foundation leads by award count (241 awards), followed by NASA Shared Services Center (97 awards, $20.3 million combined potential value), NIH (79 awards), National Park Service (70 awards), and USGS (56 awards, $801 thousand combined potential value). By dollar value, NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases dominates with 40 awards and $130.7 million combined potential value, followed by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (53 awards, $32.2 million), NASA Shared Services Center, and smaller values from Forest Service and USGS. The top five customer agencies account for 26% of awards and 65% of combined potential value, indicating moderate concentration with a broad portfolio.

The institution holds five significant indefinite-delivery contracts. The Defense Logistics Agency ENDIST Omaha awarded IDIQs 140L0618D0021 and 140L0618D0064 (24 and 23 task orders respectively, $6 million and $6.2 million combined value); Department of the Navy issued N6133979C0025 (17 task orders); Army awarded W9128F20D0068 (12 task orders, $11.4 million combined value); and Air Force issued F2560687D0008 (9 task orders). These vehicles anchor delivery-order work in environmental monitoring and infrastructure support across Department of Defense and Department of Interior agencies.

Activity has fluctuated. Awards per year show 115 in 2022, 114 in 2023, rising to 161 in 2024, then declining to 90 in 2025 and 34 in 2026 (partial-year data). One hundred nine awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $85.1 million, representing significant recompete exposure. SCI-reported invoicing on federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold totaled $32.3 million across FY2022–FY2025, with $8.4 million in FY2022, zero in FY2023, $10.3 million in FY2024, and $13.6 million in FY2025. Government-paid rates on prime service contracts span a median of roughly $204.82 per hour, with senior labor reaching the 90th percentile of $1,526.11 per hour and entry-level work around $36.52 per hour. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed approximately 27% of contractor hours, with 43 named subcontractors identified over the period. The institution subcontracts primarily as a sub-recipient on grants to universities including the University of Chicago (vaccine adjuvant work), Emory University and University of Colorado-Denver (clinical trial sub-awards), and other research institutions, while also engaging external firms and specialized consultants on environmental and technical tasks.

The institution's capability portfolio centers on field-based environmental science—snowpack, soil moisture, streamflow, and riparian habitat monitoring across western watersheds; ecological research including grizzly bear recovery, amphibian and bat conservation, forest restoration, and wildfire dynamics; biomedical research spanning vaccines, infectious disease, and clinical translational science; climate adaptation and drought resilience modeling with machine learning; and community-based workforce development in behavioral health, independent living services, and STEM education. Recent grant work demonstrates breadth: NSF-funded research on tree growth phenology across the continental U.S., physics-informed machine learning for glacier dynamics and ice sheet modeling, genomic and functional studies of plant reproductive traits, and collaborative international training institutes in computational biology. The university operates specialized analytical laboratories, maintains long-term field research infrastructure including the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, and hosts cooperative ecosystem study units supporting National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management research priorities.