Recipients › Pennsylvania › Lehigh University
Recipient organisation · UEI E13MDBKHLDB5
Lehigh University
USAspending caveat. Figures are obligations reported by federal agencies to USAspending.gov, not payments. In USAspending's words: "An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out, not just promised to be paid ('obligated')." "Every agency has a Senior Accountable Official who must officially certify that the quarterly financial data submitted by their agency is accurate and complete." "If there are any discrepancies in procurement data, FPDS is the authoritative source." Contract data for the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is published with a 90-day delay. Data loaded 30 Sep 2026. View the USAspending recipient profile.
Lehigh University, of Bethlehem, PA, was obligated $135M in federal awards across the 4 fiscal years in which it reached the $1.0M listing floor (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
In FY2026, the most recent complete fiscal year, obligations were $16M, with contracts under the listing floor.
That is down 48% on FY2025 ($30M).
Lehigh University ranks 112 of 891 listed organisations located in PA by five-year obligations, and 4,332 of 30,000 nationally.
Its $1.0M-plus awards since FY2023 came from National Science Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Energy and 2 other agencies: 19 awards worth $44M in total award value.
Obligations by fiscal year contracts vs assistance
| Fiscal year | All obligations | Contracts | Assistance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | $48,586,763 | under $1.0M | $48,586,763 | — |
| FY2024 | $40,848,443 | under $1.0M | $40,848,443 | -16% |
| FY2025 | $30,067,307 | under $1.0M | $30,067,307 | -26% |
| FY2026 | $15,758,864 | under $1.0M | $15,758,864 | -48% |
| FY2027 to date | under $1.0M | — | — | — |
A fiscal year runs 1 October to 30 September. "Contracts" are procurement award types A–D; "assistance" is everything else (grants, direct payments, loan subsidy cost, insurance, other). The contracts column is listed only where contract obligations alone reached $1.0M; the assistance figure is the remainder and may therefore include up to $1.0M of contracts.
Compared with its state and the largest recipients five listed years
| Measure | This organisation | Largest in PA | Largest nationally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five-year obligations (listed years) | $135M | $148B | $416B |
| FY2026 obligations | $16M | $40B | $118B |
| Contracts, five years | under $1.0M | under $1.0M | $94B |
| Assistance, five years | $135M | $148B | $416B |
| Rank by five-year obligations | 4,332 of 30,000 | 1 of 891 in PA | 1 |
Largest in state: PA Department of Human Services. Largest nationally: Health Care Services, California Department of. Rankings count organisations located in the state, by the sum of their listed fiscal years.
Awarding agencies $1.0M+ awards since FY2023
| # | Agency | Awards | Award value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Science Foundation | 7 | $21M | 48% |
| 2 | Department of Health and Human Services | 6 | $10M | 24% |
| 3 | Department of Energy | 4 | $9.2M | 21% |
| 4 | Department of Defense | 1 | $2.0M | 5% |
| 5 | Department of Education | 1 | $1.3M | 3% |
Assistance programs listings
Places of performance $1.0M+ awards
Counties: Northampton County, PA $39M · Lehigh County, PA $5.4M
Largest awards begun since FY2023
| Awarding agency | Type | Industry or program | Award value | Begun | Place | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Science Foundation | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 47.049 Mathematical and Physical Sciences | $6.0M | 13 Dec 2023 | PA | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 47.084 NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships | $5.0M | 6 Dec 2023 | PA | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.076 STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources) | $3.0M | 18 Jul 2023 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of Energy | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 81.089 Fossil Energy Research and Development | $3.0M | 18 Dec 2024 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of Health and Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health | GrantProject Grant (B) | 93.242 Mental Health Research Grants | $2.8M | 27 Apr 2023 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of Energy | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 81.117 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Information Dissemination, Outreach, Training and Technical Analysis/Assistance | $2.2M | 15 Sep 2023 | PA | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.041 Engineering | $2.0M | 15 Aug 2025 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of DefenseDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 12.910 Research and Technology Development | $2.0M | 11 Jul 2024 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of Energy | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 81.089 Fossil Energy Research and Development | $2.0M | 23 Sep 2024 | PA | USAspending |
| Department of Energy | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 81.086 Conservation Research and Development | $2.0M | 17 Sep 2024 | PA | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.041 Engineering | $2.0M | 18 Aug 2025 | PA | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.041 Engineering | $2.0M | 15 Sep 2023 | PA | USAspending |
Award value is the amount obligated to the award to date as USAspending reports it. Descriptions below are USAspending's text, unedited and truncated; those that appear to name a person are withheld.
- $6.0M, National Science Foundation, 13 Dec 2023: ART: BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE, ACCESSIBLE, AND SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM TO ACCELERATE RESEARCH TRANSLATION AT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY -THIS PROJECT SEEKS TO ENHANCE AND ACC
- $5.0M, National Science Foundation, 6 Dec 2023: NSF CONVERGENCE ACCELERATOR TRACK H: VISIT UNKNOWN PLACES CONFIDENTLY: MAPPING FOR ACCESSIBLE BUILT ENVIRONMENTS (MABLE) -WAYFINDING AND NAVIGATION WITHIN UNFAM
- $3.0M, National Science Foundation, 18 Jul 2023: NRT - STAKEHOLDER ENGAGED EQUITABLE DECARBONIZED ENERGY FUTURES -CARBON-BASED ENERGY SOURCES LIKE COAL, GASOLINE, AND DIESEL CONTRIBUTE TO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSI
- $3.0M, Department of Energy, 18 Dec 2024: MACHINE LEARNING ENHANCED LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY (LIBS) FOR AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF HYDROGEN PRODUCING GASIFIERS. THE PROJECT’S OVERALL OBJECTIVE IS
- $2.8M, Department of Health and Human Services, 27 Apr 2023: ESTABLISHING MULTIMODAL BRAIN BIOMARKERS USING DATA-DRIVEN ANALYTICSFOR TREATMENT SELECTION IN DEPRESSION - PROJECT ABSTRACT MAJOR DEPRESSION IS THE LEADING CAU
- $2.2M, Department of Energy, 15 Sep 2023: LEHIGH AND WEST VIRGINIA INDUSTRIAL ASSESSMENT CENTERS – CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
- $2.0M, National Science Foundation, 15 Aug 2025: EFRI BEGIN OI: BIOCOMPUTATION OF DYNAMIC PATTERNS WITH CORTICAL NEURONAL ORGANOIDS -INFORMATION PROCESSING IN THE BRAIN HAS INSPIRED ADVANCES IN ARTIFICIAL INTE
- $2.0M, Department of Defense, 11 Jul 2024: THE PURPOSE OF THIS AGREEMENT IS TO FUND RESEARCH SUPPORTING THE DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY DARPA ULTRA WIDE BANDGAP SEMICONDUCTORS UWBGS PROGRAM
Questions and answers
How much federal money does Lehigh University receive?
$135M in award obligations over the fiscal years it is listed for (FY2023: $49M; FY2024: $41M; FY2025: $30M; FY2026: $16M). Years not listed were under the $1.0M floor. Obligations are binding commitments, not payments made.
Which agencies award to Lehigh University?
By the value of $1.0M-plus awards begun since FY2023: National Science Foundation ($21M), Department of Health and Human Services ($10M), Department of Energy ($9.2M), Department of Defense ($2.0M) and Department of Education ($1.3M).
What is the money for?
Assistance falls under Engineering (47.041), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (47.049) and NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (47.084).
Where is the work performed?
Primary places of performance for its larger awards: PA ($44M).
Is Lehigh University a large federal recipient?
It ranks 4,332 of 30,000 organisations on this site by five-year obligations and 112 of 891 located in PA. The site covers organisations with at least $1.0M in a fiscal year; individuals are excluded.
Where does this data come from?
USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury), award transactions as loaded on 30 Sep 2026; fiscal-year totals via the spending-by-category endpoint and award lists via the award search endpoint. The USAspending recipient profile is the authoritative record.
Provenance
Source: USAspending.gov API v2 (U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service), CC0. Fiscal-year obligations from the spending-by-category recipient ranking by recipient state (listing floor $1.0M per year); awards from the award search endpoint (new awards of $1.0M or more by base obligation date); parent and business categories from the recipient profile where fetched. Closed fiscal years are snapshots taken after year end; FY2027 is refreshed on each build. Data loaded by USAspending on 30 Sep 2026. Individuals and sole proprietors are excluded at ingest. Errors in processing are corrected at the next build; see corrections and the methodology.