University Of Notre Dame DU Lac

University of Notre Dame DU Lac, a private tax-exempt Catholic research university headquartered in Notre Dame, Indiana, operates as a prime recipient of federal contracts and grants across defense education, research and development, and scientific research programs, with 96% of its recent award footprint concentrated in prime awards rather than subcontract work. The university does not pursue set-aside contracts; all named awards carry full-and-open or agency-specific designations.

Notre Dame's federal customer base is heavily concentrated in the Department of the Navy, which accounts for the largest volume of recent awards. The top five funding agencies represent 53% of all awards by count, led by the Department of the Navy (54 awards), the Department of the Air Force (28 awards), and the Department of the Army (13 awards). By combined potential value, however, the concentration narrows and Navy's share dominates: the Department of the Navy Bureau of Naval Personnel and the Chief of Naval Personnel carry 8 awards valued at $15.4 million, the Bureau of Naval Personnel another 8 awards at $11.5 million, and the Naval Education and Training Command 9 awards at $1.2 million, collectively anchoring 11% of the university's $275.3 million combined potential value across all 211 awards. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center and the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology round out the active customer set.

Notre Dame's capability portfolio is dominated by education and training delivery — 58 awards (the plurality) are classified under Education/Training Tuition/Registration/Membership Fees, with a secondary band of 32 awards under Education/Training Vocational/Technical — reflecting its role as a primary host institution for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program. Recent representative prime contracts include a $2.9 million delivery order from the Bureau of Naval Personnel for Spring 2026 NROTC midshipmen tuition and allowable fees (awarded February 24, 2026, completing April 30, 2026), a $2.8 million retroactive tuition delivery order for Fall 2025 NROTC coverage following the appropriations lapse (awarded December 4, 2025), and a $2.9 million Spring 2025 NROTC tuition delivery order (awarded February 28, 2025). Beyond education, the university maintains a research and development footprint: 15 awards carry R&D Defense classification, 10 carry R&D Basic Research designation, and 9 address Space R&D Services, reflecting its engagement with DARPA and NASA on physics, engineering, and life sciences research.

Notre Dame places the majority of its work under Navy Basic Ordering Agreements: the Basic Ordering Agreement N0018919GZ011 anchors 16 task orders valued at $29.1 million, Indefinite Delivery Contract F0160079D0265 carries 15 task orders, Indefinite Delivery Contract N0024409G0077 holds 13 task orders at $401 thousand, and Basic Ordering Agreement N0061285G0036 contains 12 task orders. Activity has grown incrementally — one award in 2022 to seven in 2025 — with three awards recorded in 2026 year-to-date.

In its subcontractor capacity, Notre Dame delivers research and development support to BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration on two awards: a Nitride Electronics with Enhanced Device Level Heat Extraction (NEEDLE) task (awarded April 9, 2025) and a THREADS effort (awarded May 22, 2024). As a sub-recipient on federal research grants, Notre Dame participates in multi-institution collaborations managed by The Research Foundation for the State University of New York on US Atlas Operations particle-physics research (multiple awards between July 2024 and March 2026), collaborates with the University of South Florida on chemogenomic profiling of malaria parasites (February 4, 2026), and participates in advanced battery-chemistry research under Case Western Reserve University's BEES2 program (September 15, 2023). The university's grant sub-award footprint suggests deep engagement with basic research communities rather than applied contracting with defense prime contractors.