Research Universities

Research Universities

McAllister & Quinn works with universities to build, strengthen, and diversify their research enterprises to be more strategic, proactive, and productive.

Rather than rely on traditional government relations or grants consulting models, we take a blended, 360-degree approach. This approach acts as a force multiplier, helping universities to compete for existing and forecasted sponsored opportunities and to cultivate new funding opportunities that serve the national interest.

Because we work in partnership with our clients’ research enterprise infrastructure, we tailor our services to enhance, rather than duplicate resources. Ultimately, we aim to develop customized strategies to help universities achieve their research goals.

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Gain a Competitive Advantage

In an increasingly competitive landscape, universities can improve their competitive positioning with early warning of and deep analysis of federal funding trends and priority programs. McAllister & Quinn strategic intelligence experts conduct systematic collection and analysis of legislative and agency activity, research programs, proposals, and research outputs to inform university decision making and funding pursuits. Learn more about our strategic intelligence service here.

Develop Winning Proposals​

A dedicated proposal manager will help assess needs to ensure that proposing teams receive the right level of expert assistance, that key deadlines are met, and that strong products are submitted. We provide a suite of services including coaching for principal investigators, color team reviews, graphic design, writing, editing, facilitation, proposal management services, and more. Our services can be scaled to support single investigators or larger teams of more than 50 collaborators. Learn more about our proposal development and grant writing services here.

McAllister & Quinn Vice President, Kellianne Lauer, discusses McAllister & Quinn’s assistance with managing large and complex proposals.

Invest in Your Faculty

We design and deliver training programs to build capacity among the campus research community, by helping investigators understand sponsors’ priorities and processes, develop personalized grantseeking strategies, and strengthen their grant writing skills. Programs are fully customizable, and our expert trainers will work with you to set agendas, curricula, learning outcomes, and follow up activities to ensure faculty success. Training can be delivered on-campus, in Washington, DC, or virtually. Learn more about our training service here.

Advance Your Federal Agenda

Whether you need assistance with federal marketing, congressionally directed programmatic funding increase request, or a community project funding request, our team of government relations experts can help you plan and execute a strategy that ensures that you meet your federal advocacy goals. Our government relations work for universities includes managing “DC fly in” meetings with Congressional Delegations or Executive Branch agencies, managing visits to your campus from high-profile government officials, and assisting universities with congressionally directed programmatic funding increase and community project funding requests. Learn more about our government relations, federal agency engagement, and appropriations tracking here.

Our Results

Secured nearly $450M in congressional funding support for our clients since 2018 through our government relations efforts.

Assisted in the development of more than 800+ proposals for competitive extramural funding in 2020.

Garnered more than $1.8B in competitive grant awards due to our efforts to engage federal agencies.

Representative Clients

Dartmouth College

University of California Irvine

University of Houston

University of Idaho

University of Pittsburgh

Recent Insights

What Research Universities Need to Know about FY25 Federal Priorities

This month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued their annual joint memo to Federal agencies on the Administration’s research priorities for the FY25 budget. The memo provides guidance to agencies as they work on their FY25 budget request submissions in advance of the release of the President’s Budget Request next year in early Spring.

What Research Universities Need to Know about the Federal Budget this Year: A Webinar

McAllister & Quinn’s Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Ed Williams and colleagues present an informative webinar on our nation’s investments in critical research and development programs. This webinar provides an overview of fiscal year 2023 appropriations, and new and emerging programs in the fiscal year 2024 budget request.

What Research Universities Need to Know About The CHIPS and Science Act

On February 23, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service outlined the long-term vision of the CHIPS for America program. Secretary Raimondo said that within a decade, the Federal investments made by the administration would help the US accomplish several goals..

NSF Technology Innovation and Partnerships, Directorate

In August 2022, the CHIPS bill was signed into law. The CHIPS bill authorized $20 billion over five years for the new Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The bill formally established the new Directorate and stands up program and focus areas for research.

Research Universities Team

Our clients work directly with an in-house team with backgrounds in academia, research development, technology transfer, and the Executive and Congressional branches, and are supported by a network of more than 250 consultants, including subject matter experts and former program officers who provide unique insights into federal agency priorities.