Wright State University

Wright State University, a public research institution based in Dayton, Ohio, operates as a prime recipient and contractor on federal grants and contracts across defense, health, and civilian research agencies, with 95 percent of its recent awards as prime awardee. The university competes predominantly through full and open competition with no set-aside designations, delivering tuition and fees support for military medical education, biomedical and environmental research, STEM education initiatives, and specialized training and technical services to the Department of the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

Wright State's federal footprint is heavily concentrated in Air Force work, particularly through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory accounts for 30 awards valued at $63.3 million in combined potential value, representing 64 percent of the university's total potential value across all recent awards. The Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery funds 68 awards (tuition and fees, medical education course support) valued at $4.5 million combined. The Veterans Integrated Service Network 10 (Department of Veterans Affairs) funds 37 awards valued at $1.7 million, spanning laboratory animal resources, digital library access, and health professionals education. Within the top five customers, the concentration is severe: these agencies account for 50 percent of recent awards but 72 percent of combined potential value, driven by AFRL's outsized dollar share relative to Navy's volume.

Wright State holds three active parent vehicles: a Basic Ordering Agreement with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (awarded June 1, 2025, running through May 31, 2035, no ceiling specified) that covers research and technical services including tuition and fees for Navy medical education programs; a Blanket Purchase Agreement with AFRL for laboratory supplies and consumables valued at $700,000 (awarded August 21, 2024, through August 20, 2029); and a second AFRL BPA for conference, meeting, and training facility support at the Wright Site valued at $200,000 (awarded May 1, 2025, through April 30, 2030). These vehicles anchor the university's AFRL relationship and enable rapid-response procurement of educational, logistical, and material support services.

Recent representative prime work includes a $2.7 million Project Grant from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (American History and Civics Education program, CFDA 84.422, awarded October 1, 2025) for civic and history education initiatives in elementary and secondary schools; a $2.5 million Project Grant from the Office of Postsecondary Education (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, CFDA 84.116, awarded January 1, 2026) for AI education across K-12 and postsecondary learners; a $644,459 Project Grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Environmental Health program, CFDA 93.113, awarded April 1, 2026) investigating polymorphisms in antibody production related to environmental toxicants; a $500,000 NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships grant (CFDA 47.084, awarded October 1, 2025) for developing an open engineering framework for knowledge modules in AI systems (PROTO-KAI), with sub-awardees Robert Bosch LLC and Knowledge Systems Research LLC contributing neuro-symbolic integration and use-case collection; and a $862,035.67 definitive contract from Veterans Integrated Service Network 10 (awarded October 1, 2024, running through September 30, 2034) for health professionals education in partnership with the Dayton VA Medical Center. The university also serves as prime recipient on grants focused on workforce development in behavioral health, opioid use treatment training, street medicine residency training, and semiconductor and electronics manufacturing research.

Wright State acts as a subcontractor to prime contractors including KBR Wyle Services, BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems Inc., Azimuth Corporation, DCS Corporation, Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp, and HII Mission Technologies Corp, primarily providing facility space, laboratory support, and research collaboration services to AFRL and other defense customers. Sub-awardee activity includes consultation on experimental design (University of Missouri System collaborative research), physiological monitoring and quantitative analysis (Ohio University neuromuscular research), and compliance support for clinical trials and health services research (Nationwide Children's Hospital, University of Colorado, Cincinnati University, and others). The university receives sub-awards from state agencies (Ohio Department of Mental Health, Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Department of Children and Youth) and academic institutions for STEM education pipeline work, workforce development, and clinical research implementation.

Activity has remained relatively stable, averaging 26 awards per year over the past five years (2022–2025), with modest year-to-year variation. The recompete cliff in the next twenty-four months is minimal—23 awards (combined potential value $81 thousand) reaching completion—indicating limited near-term pressure to defend against competitive recompete, though AFRL's dominant dollar share ($63.3 million) concentrates portfolio risk on a single customer base. The university's category concentration reflects its core identity: 122 awards classified under Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; 150 awards under Education/Training tuition and fees; 36 awards under R&D Defense Other (basic research); and 35 awards under R&D Defense Other (applied research). Wright State's federal portfolio is fundamentally an education and research institution model anchored to military training requirements, defense research infrastructure, and NIH/NSF investigator-initiated grants, with no exposure to full-and-open commercial contractor competition or set-aside contracting vehicles. The university competes as an institutional prime and collaborator on research consortia, not as a commercial systems integrator or commercial service provider.