Each year, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) receive just a fraction of the funding the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) provides to other schools for science and engineering.
During the 2020 fiscal year, support to all HBCUs totaled about $940,000.
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But dozens of non-HBCUs universities receive millions of dollars each year alone—some even receive hundreds of millions. Johns Hopkins University, for example, received over $900 million in fiscal year 2020 from the DOD for science and engineering.
While the number of HBCUs is albeit smaller, with smaller student populations, non-HBCUs were collectively granted nearly 3,000 times more in DOD science and engineering funding.
The Tougaloo College Research and Development Foundation (TCRDF) is on a mission to help fill this gap.
John Rosenthall, president of TCRDF, says the purpose of the organization is to increase HBCU access to federal and private sector research grants and contracts through the coordination of access support, advocacy, and partnerships.
Last month, the University of South Florida became the latest school to partner with TCRDF.
“There are some challenges in HBCUs in terms of business development to pursue, capture and manage large scale contracts and grants,” Rosenthall tells Fortune. “And the University of South Florida does it every day.”
He says many HBCUs do not have the infrastructure or subject matter expertise to pursue DOD contracts. Through this new partnership with USF, there is hope to boost talent development, research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and increase faculty knowledge.
The organization focuses heavily on the defense sector because of its large budget as well as wide-ranging opportunities, Rosenthall adds. While the DOD has over a dozen university-affiliated research centers, only just this year was one created at an HBCU.
About 30% of African American STEM professionals graduate from an HBCU, but only a slim amount of DOD research funding goes toward those schools, according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a speech announcing the new institute at Howard University.
Building relationships for long term success
Over the past half decade, USF’s Institute of Applied Engineering (IAE) has secured more than $95 million in federal government contract opportunities such as with the U.S. Central Command and the Air Force.
Darren Schumacher is the president and CEO of the IAE.
He says beyond helping train and coordinate with faculty and staff on contracts, USF will assist HBCU students with securing internships and mentoring opportunities. This, according to Schumacher, will help enable a cycle of upward social mobility.
“When it comes down to it, successful research is about people being able to collaborate,” Schumacher says.
Rosenthall hopes USF’s experience can help HBCUs achieve similar results and overall boost student and faculty success.
For students with career aspirations at the intersection of defense and technology, the DOD has hundreds of open civilian positions in popular fields such as cyber and information technology, engineering, and administrative management and support.
“There’s a financial incentive here as well. Because as we increase the research dollars, we also increase the indirect dollars. And those are funds that are theoretically unrestricted, and can be used for scholarships and other things that could benefit the students,” Rosenthall notes.
TCRDF has existing relationships with universities like Georgia Tech, Purdue, and Mississippi State, and Rosenthall hopes more can become partners. One of the main goal is to find schools that will work with HBCUs to produce tangible results the likes of pursing, capturing and managing grants and contracts.
Rosenthall adds that if Congress would do more to mandate relationships with HBCU instead of simply encouraging them, it could “revolutionize” a number of schools.
“We would love to see instant success. But this is more of a long game opportunity—not success happening overnight,” he says.
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