Quantitative Research Analytical Data Support (QRADS)

The Securities and Exchange Commission awarded a Master IDIQ for Quantitative Research Analytical Data Support on September 26, 2013, with ordering authority closing on September 25, 2018—this vehicle is no longer accepting orders. The QRADS contract supported the SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis across five work categories: Capital Markets and Financial Industry Data Analysis, Quantitative Analytical Support, Analytic Development Environment Database Support, Communication and Technical Writing Support, and Text Analytics Support. A successor vehicle, Quantitative Research Analytical Data Support 2, was established in June 2018.

Ordering activity peaked early under QRADS, with 10 orders placed in 2013 and 11 in 2014, then declined sharply to 1 order by 2017. The vehicle issued 31 task orders with combined potential value of $40.2 million, of which $34.5 million (86%) has been obligated. All awards were unrestricted, non-set-aside procurements.

Two contractors dominate the award base. Peraton Labs Inc. holds 12 orders valued at $24.5 million combined potential, while Elder Research, Inc. holds 12 orders valued at $10 million combined potential. These two firms represent roughly 86% of total potential value. Guident Technologies, Inc., Kore Federal Inc., and Data & Analytic Solutions Inc. split the remaining activity—3 orders, $2.8 million; 1 order, $1.8 million; and 3 orders, $1.1 million, respectively. All task orders funded SEC initiatives exclusively; no other agencies placed orders against this vehicle.

Task orders employed time-and-materials pricing (except one firm-fixed-price minimum-guarantee task) with typical ceiling values ranging from roughly $500 thousand to $5.6 million. The largest single award was a data maintenance task valued at $4.0 million ceiling. Most work completed between 2014 and 2017, aligning with the tail-off in new issuances. Since ordering closed seven years ago, this vehicle is closed to new business; firms currently supporting SEC quantitative research analysis work operate under the successor QRADS 2 contract.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded a Master IDIQ for Quantitative Research Analytical Data Support (QRADS). The objective of this program is to obtain support for the SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) in the following work categories: 1) Capital Markets and Financial Industry Data Analysis; 2) Quantitative Analytical Support; 3) Analytic Development Environment Database Support; 4) Communication and Technical Writing Support; and, 5) Text Analytics Support.