American Institute Of Chemical Engineers

American Institute Of Chemical Engineers, doing business as Aiche, is a tax-exempt nonprofit professional organization based in New York that acts as a federal grant recipient delivering conference support, technical databases, and workforce development programs to research agencies. Aiche operates almost entirely as a prime recipient (99% of 178 recent awards) with minimal subcontracting, and does not compete under set-aside designations.

Aiche's federal footprint centers on grant-funded conferences and technical services spanning synthetic biology, bioengineering, chemical engineering education, and advanced manufacturing. The National Science Foundation dominates its customer base, accounting for 54% of recent awards through its Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (26 awards) and Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (16 awards). The Department of Commerce NOAA and the Department of Energy account for the next material share of awards and dollars. Aiche operates across 29 distinct federal agencies, but NSF-funded conference support for early-career researchers, students, and trainees represents the clear majority of activity. Representative grant work includes NSF support for the Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution and Design (SEED) Conference (recurring annual awards since 2023), the International Conference on Microbiome Engineering (multiple awards, 2021–2025), the Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop (2023–2024), and the International Conference on CRISPR Technologies (2023–2024). Aiche also holds annual DIPPR Project No. 801 Chemical Database licensing awards from NOAA ($12,042 in 2025, $11,692 in 2024) and a $14,777 registration award from the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy for the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting.

Beyond conference support, Aiche has received multi-year cooperative agreements from the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology for workforce development and manufacturing innovation. These include virtual technician and operator training for pharmaceutical and specialty chemical industries (awarded March 2022, running through August 2025), accelerated modular process development (AMPD) for active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing (March 2022 through August 2024), and graphene manufacturing scale-up and advanced respirator applications (March 2022 through August 2025). Aiche also leads the RAPID Manufacturing Institute Renewal Award from the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a cooperative agreement running through December 2025 that advances decarbonization of process industries through process intensification, modularization, and continuous flow technologies. The H2CIRC Hydrogen Economy Circular Recycling initiative, another EERE cooperative agreement (January–December 2025), brings together 16 partners including eight industrial firms, four universities, and three national laboratories to develop fuel cell and electrolyzer end-of-life recycling and supply-chain solutions.

Activity has grown modestly — ten awards in 2022 to sixteen in 2024 — but flattened in 2025 and 2026 (six and two awards respectively in those years). Combined potential value across all awards is $843 thousand, concentrated in NOAA database licensing, NIST manufacturing and workforce grants, and EERE cooperative agreements for advanced manufacturing. Three awards with ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months carry $12 thousand in combined potential value, signaling minimal recompete exposure in the near term. Top PSC categories are education and training (23 awards), professional support services (8 awards), and scientific data and analysis (4 awards). Aiche's subcontractor footprint is negligible; two grant sub-awards show up under Worcester Polytechnic Institute's prime RAPID cooperative agreement, where Aiche performs techno-economic analysis and lifecycle assessment for sustainable aviation fuel pathways.