Office of Acquisitions and Grants

The U.S. Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants, a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior, procures scientific services, geospatial data, laboratory equipment, and research support to enable the USGS mission in earth science, water resources, natural hazards, and environmental monitoring. The Office administers both contract awards and grant funding across USGS field offices, research centers, and Water Science Centers nationwide.

The USGS contract portfolio spans 41,184 awards issued since 1997, with $6.7 billion in combined potential value and $6.07 billion obligated. Recent contract activity has declined: 1,794 awards in 2023, 1,689 in 2024, 1,176 in 2025, 1,469 in 2026, and one award recorded for the most recent award date in early 2027. Competitive concentration among prime contractors is highly fragmented; the top five primes by award count account for 11 percent of recent awards over the last five years, with Countertrade Products, Inc. leading at 327 awards ($50.8 million potential value), followed by Akima Systems Engineering LLC (217 awards, $15.9 million) and Nationwide IT Services Inc. (152 awards, $95.1 million). By potential value, NV5 Geospatial, Inc. leads with 109 awards worth $164.5 million, followed by Woolpert, Inc. (50 awards, $118 million). The top five by value cover only 8 percent of combined potential value across the window. Set-asides account for 33 percent of all awards, with 28 percent total small business (predominantly unrestricted), and 8(a) awards (sole-source and competitive combined) at 4 percent; the remaining set-asides (Buy Indian, SDVOSB, HUBZone, WOSB) each represent under 1 percent of volume.

The USGS grant portfolio totals 5,106 awards since 2010, with $1.76 billion federal dollars obligated. Grant awards have declined from 602 in 2023 to 370 in 2025 and 40 year-to-date in 2026. Grant recipients are highly fragmented; the top five by award count cover 13 percent of recent grants, led by University of Arizona (72 awards, $17.6 million federal dollars), University of Washington (55 awards, $23 million), and Regents of the University of Minnesota (53 awards, $13.5 million). By federal dollars, the Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines dominate with 22 awards worth $243.8 million—a sharp outlier reflecting major research infrastructure funding—followed by University of Alaska Fairbanks ($36.5 million across 39 awards). The top five by federal dollars cover 19 percent of the federal share. Grants are predominantly Cooperative Agreements (78 percent of all grants), with Project Grants comprising 22 percent and Formula Grants negligible.

Recent contract opportunities reflect the USGS scientific mission: a Broad Agency Announcement for high-resolution 3D elevation and hydrography mapping data through the 3D National Topographic Mapping program (posted October 15, due December 4, 2026) seeking lidar and hydrography data acquisition; metagenomics and transcriptomic services (posted October 8, small-business set-aside, due October 28); a Blanket Purchase Agreement for virus isolation and molecular RNA analysis through the Upper Midwest Water Science Center (posted September 23, $300,000 ceiling over four years, due October 9); and equipment solicitations including a noble gas mass spectrometer (small-business set-aside, due September 23) and robotic total stations for Water Science Centers in Washington and Hawaii (small-business set-aside, due September 17). Intent-to-award notices reflect noncompetitive renewals of specialized research services and equipment with single sources, including subscriptions to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and market-research platforms, GPS tracking collars from Telonics for wildlife studies, and 3D laser scanning equipment. No recent grant opportunities are recorded in the source data.