American Institute Of Chemical Engineers

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a tax-exempt professional organization that serves as a federal grant recipient (99% prime awards, 1% sub-awards) across NSF, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, EPA, and other agencies, supporting conference organization, workforce development, and applied research in chemical engineering and synthetic biology. AIChE operates from New York, New York and competes under full-and-open procurement—no set-aside categories apply.

AIChE's federal work divides clearly into three capability streams. The first is conference and meeting support: AIChE organizes and hosts technical conferences spanning synthetic biology (Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution and Design), microbiome engineering, CRISPR technologies, biomolecular engineering, plant synthetic biology, optogenetics, epigenetics, and related fields. Representative awards include NSF Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences support for the 2025 International Conference on Biomolecular Engineering (conference registration and travel support for students and early-career faculty, award date September 1, 2024, completion August 31, 2025), NSF Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems funding for the 2025 Foundations of Process/Product Analytics and Machine Learning conference in Decatur, Georgia (award date June 1, 2026, completion November 30, 2026), and Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy purchase orders for registration at AIChE's 2022 and 2023 Annual Meetings ($13,118 and $14,777 respectively, October 2023 and November 2022 ultimate completion dates). The second is applied manufacturing research and workforce development. AIChE leads cooperative agreements with NIST for virtual technician and operator training in pharmaceutical and specialty chemical manufacturing (award date March 1, 2022, completion August 31, 2025), accelerated modular process development for critical active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing (award date March 1, 2022, completion August 31, 2024), and graphene manufacturing scale-up for advanced respirator and biosensor applications (award date March 1, 2022, completion August 31, 2025). The third is technical database licensing: NOAA awarded annual licenses for the DIPPR Project No. 801 Chemical Database ($12,042 awarded August 1, 2025 for performance through August 17, 2026, and $11,692 for the prior annual period ending August 14, 2025). A fourth stream, advanced process research, includes a Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy cooperative agreement to lead the H2CIRC consortium on circular recycling for hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers (award date January 1, 2025, completion December 31, 2026) and a renewal award for the RAPID Manufacturing Institute on decarbonization and advanced process technologies (award date September 1, 2024, completion December 31, 2027). AIChE also delivered an on-site process safety workshop for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management in Richland, Washington (award date July 27, 2026, ceiling $52,500, completion September 30, 2026).

Customer concentration is heavily weighted to NSF. The National Science Foundation accounts for approximately 54% of awards by count (30 of 180 total awards), with the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences leading at 27 awards, followed by the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems at 16 awards. By potential value, the top customers shift slightly: NOAA leads with 13 awards worth $160 thousand combined potential value, NIST follows with 9 awards valued at $129 thousand, and the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy rounds out the top tier with 9 awards valued at $93 thousand. This divergence reflects that NSF places many small conference-support awards while NIST and NOAA anchor larger research and licensing agreements.

Activity has declined modestly in recent years. Awards per year peaked at 15 in 2024, dropped to 6 in 2025, and stand at 5 through September 2026. The portfolio carries a combined potential value of $896 thousand across 180 awards. Four awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating modest recompete exposure. AIChE holds two federal grant sub-awards: a techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment sub-award from Worcester Polytechnic Institute on the RAPID Manufacturing Institute (award date September 2, 2026) and a Technology-to-Market analysis and commercialization planning sub-award, also from WPI, on an HTL-to-SAF conversion project (award date March 29, 2024).