University Of Tennessee

University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), a public research institution and 1862 land-grant college member of the University of Tennessee system based in Memphis, Tennessee, operates as a federal grant and contract prime recipient delivering biomedical research, pre-clinical disease modeling, clinical trial infrastructure, healthcare services, and graduate medical education to civilian and military federal agencies. The division doing business as Finance and Operation renders these services across a non-profit educational structure with no set-aside designation, competing in full-and-open federal procurements and grant competitions. UTHSC is a child entity within the University of Tennessee system and has no ownership designations.

UTHSC's federal footprint centers on health research and clinical services. The institution holds a $146.3 million Indefinite Delivery Contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (awarded July 2024, completion through July 2031) for development and use of animal and animal replacement models to evaluate candidate countermeasures—including therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics—against infectious diseases across four task areas: small animal models, non-human primate models, animal replacement and non-traditional models, and generation and distribution of specialized reagents. UTHSC recently received a single-award Basic Ordering Agreement from the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery effective January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2035, with a $0 ceiling indicating work will be funded through subsequent task orders for medical, research, or healthcare-related services. Recent prime contract awards include tuition and fees delivery orders from the Department of the Navy and Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (January–February 2026, ceiling values ranging from $8,062 to $101,534), dental services and space provision to Veterans Integrated Service Network 9 ($928 thousand, July 2025–June 2026), VA pro-rata share of graduate medical education costs ($374 thousand, September 2024–August 2027), and COVID-19 research on clinical and virological characteristics of the disease for the Food and Drug Administration ($623 thousand, September 2022–December 2024).

Federal grant activity dominates UTHSC's portfolio at the prime recipient level. The institution is the principal recipient on over 240 NIH project grants spanning basic biomedical research, clinical investigation, and training programs. Recent grant awards include investigator-initiated projects in infectious disease mechanisms (NIAID, $234 thousand, May 2026–May 2028, examining LGR4 in HIV-associated atherosclerosis), neuroscience and behavioral health (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, $2.37 million, September 2025–August 2029, investigating social context modulation of alcohol self-administration using preclinical models; NIDA, $1.297 million, July 2025–March 2030, examining social environment influences on nicotine addiction through the CACNA1C gene and oxytocin receptor), and translational kidney disease research (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, $3.01 million, September 2025–August 2029, developing mitoprotective therapies for acute kidney injury). The institution also administers large cooperative agreements: a $3.08 million National Institute on Aging award (September 2025–August 2029) mapping genetic vulnerability to oxidative stress using a novel rat model, and a $2.37 million cooperative agreement with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (September 2025–August 2029) for dissecting neurobiological mechanisms of social control over alcohol self-administration. UTHSC serves as a sub-recipient on research grants led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Washington University, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, and other major research institutions, with sub-awards typically supporting portions of specific aims or providing institutional resources such as breeding facilities, biospecimen processing, or statistical analysis.

Customer concentration is sharp and driven by NIH. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases alone accounts for 76 awards and $146.3 million in combined potential value. NIH overall—including the Office of the Director, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and other institutes—covers approximately 42% of awards by count. The Veterans Administration places 29 awards across Veterans Integrated Service Networks for medical education and healthcare services. The Department of the Navy and Bureau of Medicine and Surgery issue smaller numbers of task orders for tuition, fees, and medical services. This concentration reflects UTHSC's role as a large academic medical center providing research infrastructure and graduate medical education rather than as a general contractor.

Activity has grown modestly, with awards per year ranging from 50 to 83 over the past five years (2022–2026). Seventy-nine awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, carrying combined potential value of $374 thousand—a recompete opportunity of modest size relative to the institution's total pipeline. Recent awards obligated $1.31 billion against combined potential value of $152.7 million, indicating that the source's potential-value estimates significantly understate actual federal spending on UTHSC work; this pattern is typical for institutions receiving multiple small task orders and grants alongside large IDIQs.

As a sub-recipient on federal grants and contracts, UTHSC performs investigator-directed basic science research, contributes animal models and housing facilities for infectious disease and toxicology studies, provides clinical trial enrollment and data collection services (e.g., participation in the Mid-America Regional Coordinating Center StrokeNet through subawards from Washington University and University of Pennsylvania), supplies biospecimen processing and genomic analysis (subawards from University of Florida and Colorado State University), and delivers graduate student and postdoctoral training support (subawards from St. Jude, Emory University, Northwestern University, and others). Named sub-award relationships include St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (mechanisms of neuroblastoma malignancy and plasticity), University of Utah (substance use disorder treatment optimization and geriatric oncology outcomes), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (genomic medicine in cancer trials), and Tennessee Department of Health (genetics screening and chronic disease prevention services).

Parent company University of Tennessee (also a 1862 land-grant institution headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee) serves as the administrative and fiscal agent for UTHSC's federal awards. The parent entity has extensive federal partnerships with Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, and National Institutes of Health across multiple research domains, creating economies of scale in compliance, infrastructure, and grant administration that benefit UTHSC's own federal contracting and grant performance. No named subsidiaries are identified in the source.