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RDT&E Program Element · President's Budget PB2027

Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions

PE 0601228D8Z·Defense-Wide·Approp. 0400 — RDT&E·BA1 — Basic Research
FY2027 Request
$99.7M
Defense-Wide · RDT&E
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Defense-Wide requests $99.7M in FY2027 (down from a FY2026 peak), sustained across the five-year plan. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House added 26% (to $125.7M); the Senate added 20% (to $119.7M); House appropriators funded it in full.

FY2027 Request
$99.7M
▼ 12% vs FY2026
FY2026 Enacted
$113.0M
▲ 15% vs FY2025
FY2025 Actual
$98.5M
Prior year

For fiscal year 2027, Defense-Wide agencies are requesting $99.7M for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions under RDT&E program element 0601228D8Z, down 12% from FY2026.

Funding trajectory

Funding profile, FY2025–FY2031

Prior years are actuals, the budget year is the request, and the outyears are the FYDP plan. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.

255075100098.5FY25ACTUAL113.0FY26ENACTED99.7FY27REQUEST99.8FY28101.7FY29103.8FY30105.8FY31
Actual Enacted Request Outyear (FYDP)
Fiscal YearEstimate TypeAmount ($M)
FY2025Actual98.5
FY2026Enacted113.0
FY2027Request99.7
FY2028Outyear99.8
FY2029Outyear101.7
FY2030Outyear103.8
FY2031Outyear105.8
Where it sits

Acquisition lifecycle

This program is funded in RDT&E Budget Activity 1 — Basic Research.

Current
Research
BA 1–2
Later
Advanced Technology
BA 3
Later
Prototyping
BA 4
Later
Development & Fielding
BA 5–7
Inside the program element

1 project rolls up into PE 0601228D8Z

Projects are the summable leaves — the PE total is their sum, never added to it. Program elements and projects carry the full five-year plan; activities stop at the budget year. This PE moves -12% overall, which can hide much larger swings below.

Project 448

Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions

$99.7MFY2027 request ▼ 12%
FY2025 actual$98.5M
FY2026 enacted$113.0M
FY2027 request$99.7M

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) program provides support in fields of science and engineering that are important to national defense. The Department of War (DoW) HBCU/MI Program encourages participation of eligible research institutions. The program is authorized by 10 U.S.C. § 4144. This competitive merit-based program provides support through grants or contracts for research, education assistance, instrumentation purchases, and technical assistance as described below. • Research: The research grants further knowledge in the basic scientific disciplines through theoretical and experimental activities. Collaborative research allows university professors to work directly with military laboratories or other universities • Education: Education assistance funds are used by eligible institutions to strengthen their academic programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), thereby increasing the number of students obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in these fields. These grants provide equipment, scholarships, cooperative work/study opportunities, visiting faculty programs, summer internship programs, and a variety of other enhancements designed to encourage students to pursue careers in STEM. • Instrumentation purchases: The program allows universities to purchase basic laboratory equipment, such as lasers and spectrometers, for enhancements to the basic research efforts. • Technical assistance: The funds are used to design programs that expose institutions to DoW funding opportunities to successfully compete for future Defense funding by assisting in areas such as proposal writing and administration of grants and contracts.

Accomplishments / planned programs (R-2A) — prior, current and budget year only
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI)▲ 2%
FY2025 actual$96.0M
FY2026 enacted$98.0M
FY2027 request$99.7M

Conduct annual merit-based competitions for HBCUs, TCUs, and MIs for basic research grants and/or equipment/ instrumentation grants that align with the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, the Secretary of War “Message to the Force” memorandum, USW(R&E) Critical Technology Areas memorandum, and Section 223 of the FY…

Read the FY2027 plan →
The whole program

HBCU is funded on 2 lines across 2 appropriations

This page shows $99.7M of HBCU, 100% of the program's $99.7M FY2027 request. The rest is appropriated elsewhere.

Also funded hereTypeComponentFY2027 $M
HBCU University Affiliated Research Center (UARC)RDT&EAir Force0.0
HBCU totalAir Force, Defense-Wide99.7

Lines whose title names the program. 3 further lines only mention HBCU in their justification text — those fund something else and are deliberately excluded from the total.

Congressional action

Congressional marks

Committee marks on the FY2027 request. Adds and cuts are reconciled in conference before they become law.

RequestPresident's Budget
$99.7M
House NDAA (HASC)HASC
$125.7M +$26.0M · +26%
Senate NDAA (SASC)SASC
$119.7M +$20.0M · +20%
House Approps (HAC-D)HAC_D
$99.7M full · +$0
▲ $26.0M chamber gap — unresolved as of 2026-07-27. These are FY2027 authorization marks (NDAA); appropriations and the conference agreement may differ.
Program detail

Mission & acquisition strategy

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) program provides support in fields of science and engineering that are important to national defense. The Department of War (DoW) HBCU/MI Program encourages participation of eligible research institutions. The program is authorized by 10 U.S.C. § 4144. This competitive program provides support through grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts for research, education assistance, and instrumentation purchases. Work in this program provides a foundation to enhance participation of HBCUs/MIs in DoW research.

Project 448 — Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions
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Answers are generated from the figures on this page — the FY2027 justification exhibits and the marks tracked above — and nothing else is consulted. Confirm any figure against the cited exhibit before you use it externally.

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Provenance

Cite this page

Sources
FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification · Exhibits R-2 / R-3 · PE 0601228D8Z (President's Budget PB2027) — and FY2027 NDAA committee marks, as tracked 2026-07-27.
Suggested citation
HitchAI, "Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (PE 0601228D8Z)," federal budget intelligence, PB2027 vintage. hitchintel.com/programs/0601228D8Z
Machine access
Markdown twin /programs/0601228D8Z.md · MCP mcp.hitchintel.com → budget_get_program_element, budget_get_cong_marks