American Association For Laboratory Accreditation

American Association For Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), a Frederick, Maryland-based non-profit accreditation body, delivers ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory assessment and certification services to federal agencies as a prime contractor (100% of recent awards), competing exclusively on a full-and-open, non-set-aside basis across 66 customer agencies.

A2LA's federal footprint concentrates on laboratory quality assurance and compliance validation. The vendor performs on-site assessments, renewal accreditation audits, and compliance documentation reviews to ensure federal laboratories meet rigorous international quality standards—primarily ISO/IEC 17025:2017, ISO/IEC 17043, ISO 17034, and supplementary standards such as AOAC Food Program and TNI (The NELAP Institute) protocols. Representative recent work includes a $249 thousand firm fixed-price contract with the FDA (awarded December 2024, running through December 2029) for third-party ISO 17025 accreditation of the agency's chemical, biological, electrical, and mechanical testing laboratories; a $155 thousand contract with CDC Pittsburgh (June 2022, through May 2027) for laboratory accreditation audit services; and a $154.5 thousand base-plus-four-option-year contract with USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (January 2024, through January 2029) for ISO 17025, ISO 17043, and ISO 17034 accreditation of field services and accredited laboratory programs at multiple locations.

Customer concentration is moderate across the federal landscape. The top five funding agencies account for 44% of recent awards by count and 45% of combined potential value: the FDA leads by dollars ($1.4 million across 43 awards), followed by USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services ($945 thousand, 19 awards), Army Medical Command ($803 thousand, 32 awards), USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service ($606 thousand, 14 awards), and CDC Pittsburgh ($515 thousand, 12 awards). Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command leads by award count (44 awards, $450 thousand combined potential value) but carries lower per-award value, indicating transaction fragmentation typical of recurring small-dollar accreditation assessments.

A2LA holds a single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with Naval Sea Systems Command valued at $46.68 thousand (through April 2028) for ISO/IEC 17025:2017 laboratory assessments. The top five IDCs by task-order volume are non-exclusive USDA contracts: AG6395C110036, AG6395C160074, AG3A94C090029, and AG3A94C140005 carry between 4 and 5 task orders each at sub-$150 thousand combined value per vehicle, and IDC 12639521D0019 (Navy) carries 8 task orders totaling $228 thousand. These vehicles represent recurring accreditation task-order patterns rather than large ceiling IDIQs.

Activity has remained stable at 11–14 awards annually over the past five years (2022–2026), with no significant growth or decline trajectory. Twenty-two awards totaling $1 million in combined potential value complete within the next twenty-four months, creating moderate recompete exposure across Navy, Army Medical, FDA, and USDA customer segments.

A2LA's award portfolio clusters heavily into two NAICS categories: Professional Organizations (181 awards) and Testing Laboratories and Services (81 awards). The PSC profile mirrors this—132 awards fall under "Support-Professional: Certifications and Accreditations," with secondary volume in reference laboratory testing (33 awards) and education/training certifications (24 awards). Work spans diverse federal laboratory disciplines including environmental testing, food safety, forensics, biotechnology, calibration, veterinary diagnostics, and threat-agent assessment at domestic and overseas locations including Hawaii, Germany, and Antarctica-adjacent facilities. A2LA maintains a subsidiary, Workplace Training Inc., a for-profit organization, which has not surfaced in recent contract awards.

The vendor operates as an incumbent accreditation body across most customer relationships, with award descriptions frequently citing "specialized expertise," "sole-source selection," and "non-competitive" or "direct competitive selection" language. This posture reflects A2LA's role as the de facto federal laboratory quality-assurance partner where ISO accreditation governance creates natural single-source or sole-viable-provider dynamics.