American Institutes For Research In The Behavioral Sciences

American Institutes For Research In The Behavioral Sciences (AIR), a tax-exempt nonprofit research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, delivers applied research, program evaluation, technical assistance, and analytics services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on a full-and-open basis, generating SCI-reported federal service contract revenue of $411.4 million across FY2022–FY2024 and managing 1,379 prime contract and grant awards (95% of its recent federal footprint) valued at $31.28 billion combined potential.

AIR's capability portfolio spans behavioral sciences research, education program evaluation, health policy analysis, workforce development technical assistance, and social services research—grounded in concrete delivery across multiple federal domains. Representative prime work includes a $73.6 million ten-year CMS delivery order (awarded September 2024) for behavioral health model implementation, design, and technical assistance under the RMADA 2 IDIQ; a $62.1 million five-year Department of Education award for National Assessment of Educational Progress technical support (covering assessment administration, data extraction, and validity panel oversight); a $69.5 million four-year Army delivery order (awarded September 2024) for Integrated Prevention Advisory Group capacity building with subcontracted expertise from Georgia State University, Banyan Communications (woman-owned small business), W2 Consulting (economically disadvantaged women-owned small business), and BNL Consulting (HUBZone-certified); and a $52.6 million CMS delivery order for Marketplace Operations support spanning qualified health plan certification, essential community provider validation, and actuarial analysis. On the grant side, AIR is recipient on projects including $2.62 million NSF STEM Education award (October 2025) for the Discovery Research PreK-12 Resource Center and $2.8 million Department of Labor grant (September 2025) for the Next Level Now Technical Assistance Collaborative supporting workforce development systems.

Customer concentration is sharp: the top five agencies (by both award count and potential value) account for 64% of combined potential value. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services anchors the portfolio with $12.62 billion across 59 awards, reflecting AIR's established role as a prime evaluator of healthcare models and payment innovations. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences follows with $3.33 billion across 177 awards, positioning IES as AIR's largest customer by award volume. US Agency for International Development contributes $2.59 billion across 31 awards, primarily in education and development evaluation. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration adds $1.33 billion across 46 awards. The remaining 131 agencies scatter across educational research, workforce development, public health, justice, and international development missions. SCI-reported federal services workforce scaled from 264 FTEs in FY2022 to 393 FTEs in FY2024, with median government-paid hourly rates at $190.11/hr and a range spanning $133.56/hr (10th percentile) to $342.27/hr (90th percentile), reflecting a capability mix from research analysts through senior principal investigators.

AIR holds seats on two major government-wide vehicles. On OASIS+ Unrestricted (awarded December 2024, no-set-aside, multiple-award), the vendor accessed a multi-billion-dollar ceiling through December 2029, enabling federal agencies to procure research, evaluation, and technical assistance across education, workforce, healthcare, and social services. On RMADA 3 (awarded July 2026, CMS-administered, $3.5 billion ceiling), AIR provides analytics and technical assistance for healthcare models and demonstrations through July 2031. Additional parent vehicles include a $99 million Chief Evaluation Office BPA with the Department of Labor (September 2023), a $70 million Quick Turnaround Social Science Research Services BPA with FDA (December 2025), the $344.7 million HRSA Evaluations and Evidence Building IDIQ (September 2024, single-award), the $49 million HHS Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network support IDIQ (August 2024), a $30 million IES Evaluating Programs and Strategies IDIQ (February 2024, multiple-award), and the $12 million IMLS Survey BPA for public library and state library administrative surveys. On PRESTO (Department of Education, multiple-award IDIQ through February 2028, $2 billion ceiling), AIR holds one of multiple positions for research evaluation and statistics support, with recent delivery orders including $21.9 million for International Activities Core Support, $60.2 million for National Assessment of Educational Progress technical support, and $10.97 million for Longitudinal Surveys Branch support.

Activity has grown year over year (2022: 63 awards; 2024: 90 awards) though FY2025–FY2026 figures show consolidation, reflecting market maturation and the shift toward larger, longer-duration delivery orders and grants over discrete smaller contracts. Sixty-seven awards (combined potential value $330.8 million) complete within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete pressure for major education evaluation, healthcare analytics, and workforce development positions. In its subcontractor role (5% of recent footprint), AIR delivers research, evaluation, and technical assistance services to larger primes. Notable sub relationships include work under Mathematica Inc. on Wagner-Peyser employment service program evaluation (Task 1 project management and Task 2 knowledge development), Research Triangle Institute on Integrated Education and Training programs in correctional systems, DAI Global LLC on Kenya primary education evaluation, ABT Global LLC on quality improvement and reemployment services evidence-building, and Nava PBC on Medicare claims data support and Blue Button 2.0 technical work. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors account for approximately 5% of contractor hours, with 170 named sub vendors engaged, indicating a lean teaming posture where AIR builds its own delivery teams and reserves subcontracting for specialized technical or domain expertise (healthcare IT, international development, statistics, or compliance).

AIR operates through four named subsidiaries: Impaq International LLC and Growth Transitions Inc. (both for-profit), Kimetrica LLC (for-profit, limited liability company), and AIR American Institutes For Research Mexico (for-profit). These subsidiaries carry specialized domain capabilities—Impaq focuses on education and social policy research, Kimetrica on international development evaluation and data science—signaling a corporate structure designed to segment expertise while maintaining centralized management under the nonprofit parent. On the GSA Schedule, AIR offers 97 active labor categories spanning administrative support ($50.94/hr), research analysts, data scientists, and principal-level researchers ($437.60/hr for master's-degreed, 20-years-experience roles), with no security clearances required, positioning the vendor for civilian federal procurements across all experience tiers and technical domains. Recent federal grant awards show diversification into emerging education and health priorities: a $1.17 million NSF grant (October 2025) for computational thinking professional learning in grades 6–8 science, a $499,451 IES grant for peer-mediated personalized learning decision tools, and multiple five-year $1 million NIDILRR grants addressing Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waitlists, dignity of risk in employment and postsecondary settings, and traumatic brain injury support resources.