National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a sub-agency of the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, funds biomedical research on child development, reproductive biology, and pediatric disease through both federal contracts and research grants to academic and nonprofit institutions.

NICHD has awarded 11,632 federal contracts since 1992, with a combined potential value of $6.14 billion and $4.58 billion obligated to date. Recent contract activity has declined: 490 awards in 2022, 360 in 2023, 363 in 2024, 283 in 2025, and 122 year-to-date in 2026. The most recent award date is October 19, 2026. Contract competition is highly fragmented. Over the last five years, the top five primes by award count—Government Scientific Source Inc. (67 awards), Illumina Inc. (55 awards), New TECH Solutions Inc. (44 awards), Sterling Computers Corporation (43 awards), and Contemporaries Inc. (42 awards)—hold only 15 percent of recent awards by count. By potential value, the top five are concentrated differently: Fisher Bioservices Inc. ($63 million), New TECH Solutions Inc. ($50.3 million), Contemporaries Inc. ($27.9 million), Sri International ($25 million), and Sterling Computers Corporation ($4.7 million) together represent only 3 percent of combined potential value. The long tail of 1,875 distinct prime contractors reflects light, distributed transactional volume. Ninety-six percent of awards carry no set-aside designation; small business awards account for 3 percent, with 8(a) sole-source representing 1 percent and all other small-business categories collectively under 1 percent.

NICHD has obligated $21.73 billion in federal grant dollars across 9,221 awards since 1974. Recent grant activity has slowed: 761 awards in 2023, 742 in 2024, 620 in 2025, 536 in 2026, and 31 year-to-date in 2027. Grant recipients are highly fragmented by both count and federal dollars. The top five recipients by award count over the last five years—Regents of the University of Michigan (93 awards, $156.2 million), The Johns Hopkins University (73 awards, $117.6 million), The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (71 awards, $102.8 million), The Regents of the University of California San Francisco (69 awards, $165.4 million), and University of Washington (67 awards, $112.1 million)—together represent only 11 percent of recent awards. By federal dollars, these same five institutions hold only 3 percent of total obligated federal funds. Project Grants comprise 97 percent of assistance types; Cooperative Agreements account for 3 percent.

Recent contract solicitations reflect NICHD's biomedical research infrastructure focus. Two active opportunities solicit MRI systems: RFP-2026-NIH-7TMR for a 7-Tesla MRI system with high-performance gradient subsystem (due September 18, 2026, with five amendments posted through mid-September), and solicitation 75N98026Q01246 for a Siemens MAGNETOM Terra to Terra.X upgrade (sole-source, due September 23, 2026). A pre-solicitation for MRI system installation and rigging at NIH Building 10 mandates on-site site visit by September 3, 2026, for logistics coordination. Other recent equipment solicitations target confocal and STED microscopes, NMR and EPR equipment, and specialized laboratory instruments from vendors including Nikon, Carl Zeiss Microscopy, and Abberior Instruments. A small-business market survey (solicitation 75N98026R00142) seeking Mirava STED and Confocal Microscope suppliers closed August 11, 2026. Contract opportunities emphasize sole-source and commercial simplified acquisitions under FAR Part 12 rather than competitive RFPs.