VA Connecticut Research & Education Foundation, Inc.

VA Connecticut Research & Education Foundation, Inc., a tax-exempt nonprofit research foundation based in West Haven, Connecticut, serves as a federal grant recipient and sub-recipient focused on biomedical and health services research for veteran and civilian populations, with the vast majority of recent activity (71%) routed through subcontracts to prime grantees rather than as direct federal awards.

The foundation's customer base is concentrated in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) portfolio. The top five funding agencies account for 94% of recent awards, led by the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (seven awards), the Defense Health Agency (four awards), the NIH National Cancer Institute (two awards), the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (two awards), and the NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (one award). As a grant recipient rather than a federal contractor, VA Connecticut Research & Education Foundation holds a fundamentally different posture from the prime-contractor vendors typical in federal procurement: it competes for federal grant funding under CFDA programs rather than for contracts or task orders.

Recent prime grant activity centers on veteran health research executed under the Defense Health Agency's Military Medical Research and Development program (CFDA 12.420). The foundation holds four active DHA prime grants: a $1.1 million four-year project titled "From Service to Survival: Investigating the Associations Between Military Deployment and Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Mortality in Veterans" (June 1, 2026 through May 31, 2030); a $516,256 three-year award for "Comprehensive Risk Stratification for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Veterans Living with Chronic Hepatitis B Virus" (April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2029); a project on "Increasing Epilepsy Self-Management Access for Veterans by Embracing a Partnered Hub and Spoke Model" (April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028); and the "Building an Equitable and Accessible System of Eating Disorder Care for VA, DOD, and Underrepresented Americans with Eating Disorders" study (completed September 29, 2026). All work is performed at the foundation's facility in West Haven, Connecticut.

As a subgrantee, VA Connecticut Research & Education Foundation participates in larger NIH-funded research initiatives led by Yale University and Stanford University, primarily supporting pain management, opioid use disorder, cancer research networks, and qualitative data analysis across multiple multi-year studies. Sub-award activity spans from 2022 through October 2025, with the foundation providing personnel resources, data analysis capacity, and project coordination support under awards from Yale and Oregon Health & Science University.

Activity has grown from one award in 2022 to six in 2025, with three awards issued in 2026. Two awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months. The foundation's combined obligated dollars across all awards total $7.1 million.