Biological Resources Discipline

The Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Discipline is a civilian research and environmental-stewardship bureau that procures services and equipment to support biological field research, habitat monitoring, and species-management missions, and funds cooperative research agreements with universities and non-profit institutions. The Discipline operates within USGS, which is Interior's primary science agency.

Contract activity at the Discipline is modest in volume and fragmented in competitive concentration. Since 2006, the Discipline has awarded 918 contracts totaling $59 million in potential value, with $53.3 million obligated to date. Recent award cadence has been sparse: 1 award in 2022, 2 in 2023, 2 in 2024, 4 in 2025, and 1 year-to-date in 2026. Over the last five years, the top-five prime contractors by award count are Northwest Helicopters LLC, JL Aviation Inc., Beryl Air LLC, Liquidspace Inc., and Papillon Airways Inc., collectively covering 70 percent of recent awards. However, these top awardees transact in small dollar values — none exceeds $137 thousand in recent combined potential value — reflecting a portfolio heavily weighted toward Schedule task orders, BPA calls, or below-threshold purchases; one recent award carried no reported potential value. Competitive concentration is highly fragmented: across the Discipline's contract portfolio history, 640 distinct prime contractors have been awarded, and no single vendor dominates by recurring volume or dollar value. About 69 percent of awards carry no set-aside designation; the remainder split between Total Small Business (30 percent of awards) and 8(a) designations in smaller proportions (1 percent combined).

Grant activity is minimal. Since 2012, the Discipline has obligated $1 million across 7 cooperative agreements with 5 distinct recipients. The most recent grant award closed in August 2019, with no grant funding recorded since. All awards took the form of Cooperative Agreements. No recent grant opportunities are recorded against the Discipline.

No recent federal contract or grant opportunities are recorded in the source data.