University Of Tennessee

University Of Tennessee, doing business as UT Agriculture Extensions Service, operates as a recipient of federal grants and as a prime contractor delivering cooperative extension and agricultural research services to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies. UT Agriculture Extensions Service is a division of the University of Tennessee system, a public 1862 land-grant institution headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and does not carry SBA certifications or set-aside designations.

The organization's federal footprint is dominated by grant recipients across five key capability areas: cooperative extension programming in all 95 Tennessee counties covering beef cattle and forage production, crop management, farm business analysis, rural enterprise development, natural resources and land management, wildfire and natural disaster preparedness, and family and consumer sciences; nutrition education for low-income families and youth through the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP, CFDA 10.514); dairy industry support spanning 12 southeastern states through the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives (CFDA 10.176); research data management and information science workforce development; and applied research on integrated pest management, pollinator protection, farm stress mitigation, and food safety. Representative prime grants include a $18.875 million Smith-Lever Extension Funding award (CFDA 10.511) running through September 2030 to deliver research-backed extension programs across all 95 Tennessee counties; a $2.045 million EFNEP formula grant (CFDA 10.514) running through September 2030 for nutrition education targeting low-income families; a $3.454 million Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives cooperative agreement (CFDA 10.176) awarded January 2026 for regional food system partnerships; and multiple project grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for bibliographic dataset construction and research data management workforce credentialing. UT Agriculture Extensions Service also issued a single $11,250 firm fixed price purchase order to USDA National Resources Conservation Service in September 2022 for 500 copies of a grazing reference book.

Customer concentration centers on the Department of Agriculture, which accounts for the plurality of recent awards. The top five funding agencies represent 59 percent of award count, led by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (111 awards across multiple program authorities), USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (43 awards), and the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (3 awards, $82 thousand combined potential value). A secondary band of customers includes the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Activity has remained stable in recent years—21 awards in 2022, climbing to 25 in 2025, with 15 awards recorded so far in 2026. Twelve awards are reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore face grant recompete or renewal in that window. The combined potential value across all 361 awards in the source portfolio totals $203.2 million, with combined dollars obligated at $611.3 million, reflecting multi-year grant cycles and formula-fund pass-through mechanisms typical of land-grant cooperative extension programming.

UT Agriculture Extensions Service operates as a prime recipient on the vast majority of its federal work (82 percent of awards), with grant sub-award activity (18 percent of awards) routed through collaborating universities and state health departments. Named sub-awardee relationships include cooperative work with Pennsylvania State University on vector-borne disease training (spanning multiple award cycles), the University of Georgia Research Foundation and University of Wisconsin System on sustainable agriculture and beef cattle genetics research, the University of Hawaii on food system resiliency programming, the University of Vermont on precision dairy farming, and recurring sub-awards to the Tennessee Department of Health for chronic disease management, childhood lead poisoning prevention, and immunization programming. The organization also serves as a sub-recipient under prime grants from other land-grant universities and the USDA, contributing extension content and field delivery to multi-state and national programs.