William Paterson University Of New Jersey

William Paterson University of New Jersey, a state government entity and Hispanic Serving Institution based in Wayne, New Jersey, receives federal grants as a prime recipient (75% of awards) and sub-recipient (25%) across research, STEM education, student support services, and community development programs. The university does not hold federal contracts or IDVs; its entire federal footprint is grant-based and concentrated in civil research and higher-education support.

The university's grant portfolio spans 39 distinct federal agencies, anchored by the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (20 awards), the National Science Foundation (16 awards), and the National Endowment for the Arts (11 awards)—together accounting for roughly 50% of recent awards. The Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration round out the active top five. Recent representative prime grants include a $2.0 million NSF STEM Education award (CFDA 47.076) issued June 2026 to support the Mathematics and Computer Science Scholars Program, providing scholarships and mentoring to 40 low-income undergraduates through May 2032; a $523,900 Department of Justice National Institute of Justice award (CFDA 16.560) issued January 2025 to conduct mass shooter behavior research and database development through December 2027; a $1.0 million Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education award (CFDA 84.116) issued June 2023 to operate the Community Earmark Scholarship Program through May 2026; and a $128,000 USDA Rural Business Development Grant (CFDA 10.351) issued March 2026 to deliver business development services and technical assistance to rural New Jersey small businesses through March 2028. The university also receives recurring awards from the Department of Education's TRIO Student Support Services program (two parallel $272,364 awards in September 2025 covering general and STEM-focused student support through September 2026) and hosts NSF Geosciences projects on paleoclimate reconstruction spanning the last 200,000 years in Southeast Asia and millennial-length wood-anatomical records from Mongolia. Arts and humanities grants from NEA and NEH support gallery collection rehousing and preservation, while a $481,923 NSF Polar Programs award addressed Arctic indigenous community resilience to climate extremes.

As a sub-recipient, William Paterson participates in pass-through funding from Rutgers University on NSF postdoctoral training programs (IRACDA INSPIRE), receives cardiovascular health and substance-abuse prevention sub-awards from New Jersey state agencies (Department of Health, Department of Human Services), and contributes soil microbiome research to a University of Florida biomedical project. Recent sub-award activity concentrates in substance-abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery services flowing through New Jersey state agencies—multiple Strategic Prevention Framework and COVID relief SABG sub-awards issued in 2024–2025 totaling several hundred thousand dollars across the prevention pipeline.

Award volume has grown from 7 in 2022 to 17 in 2024, with 14 new awards in 2025, though the first half of 2026 shows three awards to date. Ten awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete or continuation exposure for the university. The portfolio reflects the institution's research capacity in geosciences, climate science, and environmental policy; its mission-aligned work in STEM education access and low-income student support; and its regional role in substance-abuse prevention and rural economic development in New Jersey.