American Geophysical Union

American Geophysical Union (doing business as A G U), a non-profit professional scientific organization headquartered in Washington, DC with over 60,000 members, operates as a federal prime recipient across grants and service contracts, delivering conference management, scientific meeting venue services, and research program support to civilian science agencies. AGU competes in full-and-open, receives no set-aside designations, and generates federal revenue primarily through small conference-related purchase orders and research grants from civilian science agencies rather than through large prime contracts or government-wide vehicles.

AGU's concrete federal work centers on three capability areas: hosting and managing large scientific conferences and Chapman Conferences (specialized workshops) that convene research communities around geoscience, water, climate, and space physics topics; providing venue and logistical support for federal agency meetings; and serving as prime recipient for research grants focused on scientific workforce development, open science infrastructure, and community engagement in the geosciences. Representative prime work includes a $1.74 million NASA grant (awarded June 2022, completed January 2023) for the AGU TOPS MVP MOOC program supporting open-science training; a $1.41 million NASA grant (awarded November 2021, terminated for convenience May 2025) to support early-career researchers post-pandemic in partnership with the American Astronomical Society and the American Society for Gravitational Researchers; a $499 thousand NSF Geosciences grant (awarded September 2025, due August 2027) for developing discipline-specific open science frameworks in hydrology, oceans, and seismology; a $148 thousand National Endowment for the Humanities grant (awarded May 2024, due April 2026) for ethnographic research on geological encounters in Puerto Rico; and numerous NSF-funded conference grants ranging from $10 thousand to $50 thousand supporting Chapman Conferences and travel for early-career scientists across topics including remote sensing of the water cycle, sea-level projections, energy balance closure, and indigenous data sovereignty in research publishing.

Customer concentration is distributed across civilian science agencies. The top five funding agencies by award count cover 32% of recent awards: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (92 awards, $273 thousand combined potential value), the Office of Naval Research (69 awards, $255 thousand), the National Science Foundation (43 awards), the U.S. Geological Survey (19 awards, $64 thousand), and the Naval Education and Training Command (18 awards, $23 thousand). By potential value, the distribution shifts: NASA's Shared Services Center anchors 57% of combined potential value across 16 awards worth $5 million, followed by NOAA (92 awards, $273 thousand), ONR (69 awards, $255 thousand), the National Park Service (6 awards, $338 thousand), and NASA's Goddard Space Center (15 awards, $90 thousand). The dual ranking reflects AGU's base of high-value NASA research grants paired with a large volume of smaller NOAA and ONR conference and venue-service purchase orders.

AGU's award footprint shows recent activity in decline: twelve awards in 2022 dropping to five in 2026 year-to-date, with three awards facing completion within the next twenty-four months. The vendor portfolio carries $10.5 million in combined potential value across 757 total awards (prime and sub), though obligated dollars have exceeded potential value at 324%, signaling that many smaller historical awards have been fully invoiced. AGU acts as prime on 99% of its federal awards, with minimal subcontract footprint: two 2024–2026 sub awards through Amentum Services and KBR Wyle for Astrobiology Science Conference services under the FILMSS biosciences contract, and two grant sub-awards (one through the University of Illinois for a climate solutions ecosystem, one through the American Physical Society as a Bridge Program partner for diversity and inclusion in physics and geosciences). The top parent vehicles carry minimal dollar volume: an FA283508A0005 IDIQ with four task orders worth $15 thousand and an 80ARC024DA004 IDIQ with two task orders, reflecting AGU's position outside large government-wide procurement vehicles.