Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (doing business as Vumc), a nonprofit academic medical center operating as a child entity of The Vanderbilt University, acts as a prime recipient and prime contractor delivering federal research, clinical services, and specialized medical care to the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies on a full-and-open basis without set-aside designations. The medical center is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and operates across multiple Nashville-area clinical and research locations including Forest Hills, Tennessee.

The medical center's recent federal footprint spans 3,333 awards (2,162 prime, 1,171 sub) with combined potential value of $2.54 billion. Activity has grown from 331 awards in 2023 to 523 in 2024, then declined to 311 in 2026, with 381 awards (combined potential value $15.8 million) reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months. Over the past several years, SCI-reported invoicing on federal service contracts reached $56.8 million in FY2022 across roughly 4,800 FTEs, then contracted to $31.7 million and approximately 92 FTEs in FY2024 and $17.9 million and roughly 68 FTEs in FY2025, reflecting VUMC's shift toward grant-based research and clinical delivery orders rather than standalone service contracts. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates run around $129.62 per hour, with senior labor pricing through $255.20 per hour.

Customer concentration sits with federal research and health agencies. The top five funding agencies account for 48% of awards: the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (409 awards, $506.2 million combined potential value), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (334 awards), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (329 awards, $1 billion combined potential value), the National Cancer Institute (324 awards, $674 thousand combined potential value), and Veterans Integrated Service Network 9 (211 awards, $555.5 million combined potential value). When ranked by potential-value share, NIAID anchors the portfolio at $1 billion, followed by VISN 9 at $555.5 million and NHLBI at $506.2 million. NIH institutes collectively represent the dominant customer base, with NHLBI, NIDDK, NIAID, NCI, NIA, NINDS, and NCCIH accounting for the plurality of awards and dollars.

VUMC's capability portfolio centers on biomedical research execution, clinical trial support, specialized transplant and surgical services, laboratory testing, and preclinical and translational research. Recent contract awards include a $5.566 million delivery order from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (awarded September 28, 2026, through September 27, 2030) for the TOPMED Centralized Omics Resource program involving multi-omics data processing and management; a $4.857 million delivery order from VISN 9 (awarded July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027) for liver, liver-kidney, and live donor liver transplant services under a ten-year IDC with $94.3 million ceiling; and a $932,064 delivery order from CDC Pittsburgh (awarded September 25, 2026, through September 27, 2029) as a contributing site under the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment IDIQ for the HOME LAIV study. Grant work includes the $3.252 million NIAID project grant on bacterial metabolism inhibitors for antimicrobial-resistant uropathogens, the $1.774 million NHLBI award on TBX4-driven pulmonary hypertension mechanisms, and the $1.575 million NIEHS Medical Library Assistance award for sustainable algorithms ensuring equitable AI/ML delivery across patient populations.

VUMC operates as a prime across the full clinical and research spectrum—NIH project grants, clinical trials, specialized surgical services delivery orders, and laboratory testing—with 65% of recent awards in prime roles. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the average sub-hours share is 3%, indicating VUMC primarily builds and staffs its own delivery teams rather than relying on subcontractors; 101 named subcontractors appear across the prime portfolio, concentrated in collaborative research roles where VUMC pairs with peer academic medical centers, universities, and specialized research institutions. In subcontractor roles, VUMC delivers research services, clinical data collection, biospecimen processing, and subject enrollment to peer research institutions including the University of Denver, The Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University, and others under NIH and other federal grant mechanisms.

VUMC's grant footprint reflects deep engagement with the NIH ecosystem. Recent recipients of project grants include awards from NHLBI on cardiovascular disease mechanisms and outcomes (including $874,973 for a randomized carnitine supplementation trial in pulmonary arterial hypertension, $917,304 on cellular and molecular coordination of alveolar regeneration, and $1.166 million on lung cancer screening optimization), NCI on cancer treatment research and detection (including $701,332 on MRI cytometry for renal mass characterization and $603,714 on enhanced visualization for endoscopic upper tract urothelial carcinoma treatment), NIDDK on metabolic and physiologic research (including $833,970 on mitochondrial electron transport in kidney epithelium), NIAID on infectious disease mechanisms and vaccines, National Institute on Aging on gerontology and age-related disease, NINDS on neuroscience and neurological disorders, National Institute of Mental Health on psychiatric and developmental disorders, and the Defense Health Agency on military medical research. The medical center also holds positions as a sub-recipient on numerous NIH multi-site consortia, including the ECHO Coordinating Center, KPMP (Kidney Precision Medicine Project), HuBMAP (Human Biomolecular Atlas Program), and multiple disease-specific networks.

VUMC's IDIQ and parent vehicle positions anchor clinical and research delivery to the VA system. The medical center holds a single-award indefinite-delivery contract with VISN 9 for liver, liver-kidney, and live donor liver transplant services (ceiling $94.3 million, awarded July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2036) and a single-award IDIQ for veterinary support services (ceiling $650,000, awarded March 16, 2025, through March 14, 2030). Both vehicles carry Executive Order 14398 compliance language. Under these IDIQs, VUMC has issued multiple delivery orders for transplant services, laboratory testing, research core support, animal husbandry, police forensics services, orthopedic on-call services, autopsy assistance, and veterinary support.

Place of performance spans Nashville and Forest Hills, Tennessee, with specialized clinical programs and research facilities distributed across the VUMC campus. The medical center operates as the premier academic health system for federal research and clinical programs in Middle Tennessee, serving a geographic footprint that includes support to the nearby VA and to Meharry Medical College, an HBCU, through shared research infrastructure including the Radiochemistry Core facility for molecular imaging.