More than $4.6 billion in technology-oriented federal grant funds are immediately available to institutions of higher education according to a new report released by Reston, Va.-based market research firm Input.
The report examines three of the largest federal grant recipients who collectively received more than $730 million in awards in 2002: Carnegie-Mellon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California at Berkeley.
The report also highlights the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as two of the top federal grant-making agencies.
“The federal government is the largest funding source for information technology projects in higher education,” said Meredith Luttner, manager of State & Local Market Development Services at Input. “The majority of federally granted IT funds are used to purchase hardware and software for colleges and universities.”
Input is currently tracking more than 350 federal grants available to higher education. The funds available within those programs exceeds $4.6 billion. The largest of the funds come from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science with $400 million.
“Information technology vendors can solidify their relationships with their higher education customers by informing them that federal grant funds are available,” the report states.
Luttner added, “With the budget difficulties that are pervading state and local governments, IT projects at universities across the nation will be increasingly reliant on federal grants for funding.”