Battelle Memorial Institute

Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus, Ohio-headquartered nonprofit research and development organization, operates as a prime contractor across defense, civilian, health, environmental, and scientific federal domains, competing predominantly in full-and-open procurements without set-asides. With over 16,000 recent awards (99% prime) totaling $337.49 billion in combined potential value and $30.65 billion obligated across 313 federal customer agencies, Battelle ranks among the largest federal contractors by volume and dollar magnitude. The organization delivers concrete capabilities in research and development, engineering services, systems integration, environmental remediation and testing, chemical and biological defense, information technology, aerospace systems, and specialized technical support across defense and civilian agencies.

Battelle's customer concentration skews defense-heavy. The Department of the Army leads by award count (4,184 awards, $606.1 million combined potential value), followed by the Department of the Air Force (1,681 awards, $152.4 million), but the Office of the Secretary of Defense dominates by dollar magnitude ($111.65 billion across 399 awards). The Army Materiel Command's Research Development and Engineering Command ($14.39 billion across 860 awards) and Army Contracting Command Aberdeen Proving Ground ($38.44 billion across 857 awards) anchor the Army's exposure, with both ranking in the top five by potential value. Civilian customers including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Health and Human Services, and National Science Foundation represent meaningful but smaller shares of the prime footprint. Recent award activity shows 78 awards in 2026 year-to-date (through October 12), down from a peak of 163 in 2024 and 154 in 2025, with 138 awards (combined potential value $1.18 billion) completing within the next twenty-four months and facing recompete.

Capability scope is broad and grounded in concrete contract work. On the defense side, Battelle delivers research and development for chemical and biological protection (a $42.6 million delivery order from Joint PEO Chemical and Biological Defense for soldier protection engineering and capability development), armored vehicle procurement and modification (multiple Air Force and Special Operations Command delivery orders totaling tens of millions for TLC-series vehicle fabrication and integration, with subcontractors including L3Harris Technologies, Underground Pipeline Inc., and Raka Corporation), information technology and cyber network development ($3.6 million–$3.7 million DoD cyber RDT&E delivery orders), biological threat reduction (a $93.3 million Defense Threat Reduction Agency contract for reducing biological threats among international partners), and biodefense research (a $999,996 Defense Threat Reduction Agency grant for polymeric nanoparticles for episomal DNA delivery to neuronal tissues). On the civilian side, Battelle performs environmental monitoring and remediation (the $90 million EPA STREAMS V scientific and technical research vehicle through January 2033; ambient air quality support under GSA Multiple Award Schedule BPAs; PFAS remediation work under an ESTCP contract worth $2.7 million), food defense and supply chain integrity technical support for the FDA, infectious disease vaccine evaluation ($136.6 million NIAID indefinite delivery vehicle for evaluation and testing services), and weather-related public health research (a $216,217 EPA delivery order on wildland fire smoke health impacts). Battelle also operates the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) support contract (a $299,955 NASA purchase order for AERONET photometer operations and maintenance across 49 government-owned instruments at NEON field sites nationwide). Recent awards include connected-vehicle technology development for the Federal Railroad Administration ($533,323 under OASIS+ Unrestricted), civil engineer robotic and autonomous systems research for Air Education and Training Command ($25.2 million, also under OASIS+), and data coordination for chemical and biological threats ($17.3 million from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response). Grant work spans National Science Foundation climate and ecosystem research (NSF awards for Antarctic photoautotroph spectroscopy, dryland litter dynamics, and AI-ready ecological data infrastructure), Department of Energy carbon capture feasibility studies, and NTIA public wireless supply chain innovation ($43.2 million for open RAN radio unit development and spin-out commercialization).

Battelle's vehicle position is anchored in government-wide and agency-specific indefinite delivery contracts. The OASIS+ Unrestricted multiple-award IDIQ with GSA ($999.999 billion ceiling, awarded December 17, 2024, completion December 16, 2029) is the largest and most visible; recent delivery orders under OASIS+ include the $25.2 million Air Education and Training Command robotic systems RDT&E work and the $533,323 Federal Railroad Administration connected-vehicle delivery order. The $90 million EPA STREAMS V single-award indefinite delivery vehicle (January 12, 2026–January 11, 2033) anchors civilian environmental science work. Battelle also holds the $52.9 million C-130J Electronic Modular Aerial Spray System (EMASS) indefinite delivery contract with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (awarded March 12, 2025, completion March 11, 2030), with a $37.78 million delivery order issued in March 2025 for system development and sustainment. The $136.6 million NIAID Evaluation and Testing Services indefinite delivery vehicle (September 12, 2025–September 29, 2035) supports vaccine and biologic evaluation. Defense-focused IDIQs include the $151 billion Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) multiple-award contract (December 29, 2025–December 28, 2035), a $25.357 billion Defense Microelectronics Activity Advanced Technology Support Program V (ATSP V) multiple-award indefinite delivery vehicle (April 1, 2026–December 29, 2035), the $120 million National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Human Factors research vehicle (September 26, 2024–March 26, 2030), and a $10.1 million FAA Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting indefinite delivery contract (September 12, 2025–September 11, 2030). Agency-specific blanket purchase agreements include a $25 million CDC vehicle for Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry public health services, a $44 million EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program BPA, and a $500,000 Army Corps of Engineers ERDC multi-omics characterization BPA. The top five parent vehicles by task-order volume are Army-focused: W911NF07D0001 (1,042 task orders, $1.74 billion), DAAD1902D0001 (962 task orders, $20.6 million), SP070000D3180 (793 task orders, $1.91 billion), DAAG2981D0100 and DAAL0386D0001 (both Basic Ordering Agreements with 813 and 718 task orders respectively).

Teaming and subcontracting posture reflects a prime-heavy strategy. Across the recent award portfolio, 99% of awards are prime (15,994 of 16,174 total awards); only 180 are subcontractor awards, indicating Battelle competes and wins predominantly as a prime rather than as a feeder to larger primes. In Service Contract Inventory-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors perform an average of 8% of total contractor hours, indicating Battelle builds most of its own delivery teams for federal service work. Sub-award activity names recurring primes to which Battelle subcontracts: Ch2M Hill Inc. (recurs across numerous PFAS remedial investigation and environmental consulting work), Mantech Advanced Systems International Inc. (vehicle parts and ALECS task order support), Assured Information Security Inc. (engineering services on programs like TENSHU, VALIANT, STALWART, and AZRAEL), Lockheed Martin Corporation (vehicle components including window lifts and lift assemblies), and Resolution Consultants—an AECOM-Ensafe joint venture (PFAS groundwater investigation and conceptual site modeling). These relationships position Battelle as a subcontractor in defense and environmental programs but do not materially alter the prime-heavy characterization of the overall portfolio.

SCI-reported service-contract invoicing totaled $409.1 million across FY2022–FY2025 (FY2025 alone: $160.1 million across 359 FTEs), a strict subset covering contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold and excluding goods, products, and non-federal revenue. The FTE trajectory shows 234 FTEs in FY2022, declining to 197 in FY2023–FY2024, then rising to 260 in FY2025. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts span a median of $145.85/hr, with the 10th percentile at $39.71/hr and the 90th percentile at $303.76/hr, reflecting a workforce from interns and technicians through senior technical directors. GSA Schedule labor categories number 289, ranging from entry-level intern roles at $36.73/hr to master's-level technical directors at $432.99/hr, with no security-cleared positions listed—a posture consistent with Battelle's civilian and unclassified service work (classified contracts are excluded from SCI reporting).

Corporate structure includes named subsidiaries such as Battelle Energy Alliance LLC and Omniviz Inc., though the source does not detail subsidiary-specific federal contracting roles or capabilities. The parent organization remains the contracting entity across the award portfolio.

The federal R&D marketplace reflects Battelle's scale and scope: top NAICS codes include Engineering Services (1,669 awards), Electronic Connector Manufacturing (794 awards), Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences except Biotechnology (755 awards), Administrative and General Management Consulting (603 awards), and All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (472 awards). Top PSC codes are R&D—Other Research and Development Basic Research (4,800 awards), Support Professional Other (718 awards), Other Environmental Services (698 awards), Support Professional Technology Sharing and Utilization (680 awards), and R&D—Defense Other Applied Research and Exploratory Development (672 awards). This distribution underscores Battelle's role as a full-spectrum R&D and engineering services provider to the defense and civilian federal government, competing on technical merit and past performance in open competition without set-aside constraints.