Flagstaff Science Center

The U.S. Geological Survey Flagstaff Science Center, a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior, conducts scientific research and technical work in geology, geophysics, and related earth-science disciplines, procuring contracts and grants to support field operations, specialized services, and collaborative research partnerships. The Center's activity is concentrated in the Southwest and operates under the Interior's broader mission of resource stewardship and scientific advancement.

The Center has awarded 375 federal contracts cumulatively since 2008, with $5.2 million in combined potential value and $5.1 million obligated. Recent contract activity has declined sharply: the Center issued 52 awards in 2015, but only 2 in 2024, 2 in 2017, and 1 year-to-date in 2026, with the most recent recorded award dated April 1, 2026. The competitive landscape is highly fragmented among the 224 distinct prime contractors awarded over the portfolio history. Over the last five years, the top primes by award count are Guidance Air Service LLC (1 award, $150 thousand), Papillon Airways Inc. (1 award, $106 thousand), and Lira Electric, LLC (1 award, $640 thousand); these three cover 100% of recent awards but only 17% of combined potential value, indicating that recent transactions involve multiple small vendors with low individual transaction values. Ninety-seven percent of awards carry no set-aside designation; small business set-asides account for 2% of awards, with 8(a) sole-source, partial small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business together representing less than 1%.

Grant activity at the Center is minimal and dormant. Four Cooperative Agreements have been awarded since 2016, totaling $646 thousand in federal obligation, distributed among four distinct recipients. The most recent grant award closed on August 15, 2018; no grant activity is recorded after that date. All four grants were structured as Cooperative Agreements, the typical vehicle for research partnerships involving recipient cost-share or joint government-recipient management.

The Center is not actively pursuing new contract or grant opportunities at present, with contract award velocity approaching zero since 2017 and no grant awards issued in the past eight years.