Van Andel Research Institute

Van Andel Research Institute (VAI), a non-profit biomedical research organization headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, conducts federal grant-funded research in molecular biology, epigenetics, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer biology as a recipient and sub-recipient. VAI holds no federal procurement contracts as a prime contractor; the vendor's federal footprint is almost entirely grant-based, with 169 prime grant awards and 27 grant sub-awards across 28 federal agencies, dominated by the National Institutes of Health. The organization competes full-and-open in competitive grant programs across multiple NIH institutes and the Defense Health Agency rather than through set-asides.

VAI's research portfolio centers on mechanistic investigations in three broad capability areas: epigenetic regulation of chromatin structure and gene expression, particularly histone modifications and DNA methylation signaling in disease states; neurodegenerative disease mechanisms, including Parkinson's disease, ALS, frontotemporal dementia, and Alzheimer's disease; and cancer immunotherapy and metabolic oncology, focusing on T cell exhaustion, metabolic reprogramming in tumors, and immune checkpoint mechanisms. Representative prime grant work includes a $1.62 million, three-year NIH NIAMS award for research on mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in muscle satellite cells and myogenic differentiation, a $790 thousand NIAID grant investigating metabolic targeting of CD4 T cells in multiple sclerosis, and a $1.01 million NINDS award for gene therapy approaches to reduce neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease. VAI also holds a $48.6 million indefinite delivery contract with the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Moonshot Biobank program to establish a Biospecimen Core Resource providing biospecimen collection, storage, and management services through June 2027; a $7.9 million cost-no-fee delivery order has been executed against this IDC, with a sub-award to Health Research-Roswell Park Cancer Institute Division for hematopathology and surgical pathology review of acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma cases.

Customer concentration is extreme: the National Cancer Institute accounts for 53 of 196 total awards (27% of award count) and $62.2 million combined potential value (100% of disclosed potential-value figures), reflecting NCI's dominance of VAI's visible federal footprint. The next four customers—the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (25 awards), the broader NIH Office of the Director (20 awards), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (15 awards), and the National Institute on Aging (13 awards)—collectively represent 73 awards. This concentration is consistent with VAI's research mission in cancer biology and neuroscience. Awards have grown from 18 in 2022 to 23 in 2024, with 36 awards (combined potential value $7.9 million) reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure.

As a non-profit research institute, VAI operates as a prime recipient on the vast majority of its grants (86% of awards are prime); the 14% sub-award share reflects collaborative arrangements with universities and research institutes. Service Contract Inventory data shows VAI reported $2.6 million in invoiced revenue across three prime SCI-reportable contracts spanning FY2022 through FY2024, supporting roughly 5 FTEs in federal service work. On these contracts, government-paid hourly rates ranged from $90.87/hr at the 10th percentile to $125.88/hr at the median, with senior labor through $125.88/hr. Sub-hours share on SCI-reported prime contracts averaged 2%, indicating VAI builds most delivery teams internally rather than heavily subcontracting. Named subs in the SCI dataset included 2 vendors. In grant sub-recipient roles, VAI partners with universities including The Washington University (for somatic mosaicism genomics), Weill Medical College of Cornell University (for cryo-EM structure work), and University of Florida, University of Kentucky, Vanderbilt University, and others for specialized experimental contributions. Recent sub-award work includes cryo-EM structural biology of the human proteasome, lineage tracing and single-cell epigenomic analysis, and metabolomic profiling of T cell and tumor metabolism.