Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC)

The National Institutes of Health established this Master IDIQ on November 15, 2016, to support the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study field centers and coordinating center, with ordering authority closing on November 14, 2022—the vehicle is now closed and no longer accepting new task orders.

The vehicle has exhausted its potential value. All $37.9 million in combined potential value across 16 task orders has been obligated. Ordering activity peaked in 2016 with 7 task orders and declined steadily thereafter, with only 3 orders placed in 2019 (the final year of issuance). No new orders have been issued since September 17, 2019, six years ago.

Work contracted under the vehicle centers on sustained longitudinal cardiovascular disease research, including core field center study operations, cohort follow-up visits, clinical event data collection, and limited clinical examinations of ARIC study participants. Task orders funded diversity supplements focused on individual researcher support, and a coordinating center order covered community surveillance and feasibility work. Pricing structures were predominantly cost-no-fee arrangements, with two smaller diversity supplement orders priced as firm fixed-price.

Four university research institutions hold all awards. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill captures the largest share with 6 orders and $21.6 million in combined potential value, representing roughly 57% of total vehicle value. Regents of the University of Minnesota placed 5 orders for $5.9 million, Johns Hopkins University received 3 orders for $5.5 million, and University of Mississippi Medical Center holds 2 orders for $4.9 million. All 16 task orders fund the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute within NIH—customer concentration is complete. All work is unrestricted (no set-asides applied).

Task-order values ranged from approximately $24,000 to $12.4 million, with the largest single order being a coordinating center core study operations delivery covering November 2016 through December 2023 at $12.4 million. Place of performance reflects the distributed nature of ARIC field centers and aligned with the geographic footprint of participating institutions.

The goal of the ARIC Field Centers is to enhance statistical power to perform analyses of predictors of clinical events, particularly in informative subgroups and study the progression of subclinical to clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD),including identification of new risk factors or interactions among factors. The operational goals are to (1) support continued cohort follow-up and data collection on clinical events; (2) continue to foster scientific collaborations; and (3) conduct a limited clinical examination of the ARIC participants as a platform for ancillary study examination components.