Biodiversity Research Institute

Biodiversity Research Institute, Inc., headquartered in Portland, Maine, is a non-profit ecological research organization that delivers wildlife monitoring, environmental assessments, habitat surveys, natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) technical support, and expert witness services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on 93% of recent awards, competing on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations.

BRI's customer base concentrates on natural-resource stewardship agencies within the Department of the Interior. The top five funding agencies account for 43% of awards by count but represent 90% of combined potential value, driven by the Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (3 awards, $11.3 million combined potential value), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (4 awards, $9.6 million), and Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 (10 awards, $6.6 million). Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 leads by award frequency (20 awards) but carries only $171 thousand combined potential value, indicating a portfolio of smaller single-source research grants. Across the vendor portfolio, 28 distinct federal agencies have placed awards, spanning Interior, Commerce, Justice, Transportation, Army, Energy, and State.

BRI's capability footprint centers on avian collision-risk modeling, especially for offshore wind-energy impact assessment; bat habitat surveys and acoustic monitoring; salmon and aquatic development monitoring; NRDA technical support for hazardous-substance releases; and expert witness testimony on environmental injury quantification. Representative prime work includes a $909 thousand delivery order from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (awarded June 2022) for baseline wildlife surveys in the Gulf of Maine; a $511 thousand Cooperative Agreement from Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 (awarded September 2024) under the Migratory Bird Monitoring, Assessment and Conservation federal grant program (CFDA 15.655) to further develop the Stochastic Collision Risk Assessment for Movement (SCRAM) web application for modeling avian collision risk with offshore wind turbines in the U.S. Atlantic; a $282 thousand delivery order from the National Park Service (awarded February 2026) for Anacostia River claim documentation under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule; expert witness purchase orders from the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division ($90 thousand and $97 thousand, awarded July 2025 and December 2024 respectively); and a $32 thousand delivery order from the Federal Highway Administration for bat surveys at Acadia National Park, Maine (awarded April 2023).

BRI recently secured a $9.6 million Blanket Purchase Agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (awarded December 2025, ultimate completion December 2030) against the GSA Multiple Award Schedule for NRDA technical support services under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. The organization also holds a standing Indefinite Delivery Contract (INM17PC00012, $909 thousand combined potential value) and places 20 task orders across the GSA Multiple Award Schedule totaling $11.2 million combined potential value. GSA labor portfolio spans 13 active categories ranging from Field Assistant at $74.56/hour (associate degree, 3 years experience) through Subject Matter Expert III at $279.60/hour (doctorate, 12 years experience), with no security-cleared roles offered—a profile reflecting BRI's non-defense environmental-research positioning.

Activity has remained modest and flat: 2 awards in 2022, 4 in 2023, 7 in 2024, 7 in 2025, and 2 in 2026 year-to-date. Three awards (combined potential value $282 thousand) reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing light recompete exposure. Federal grant work comprises the majority of BRI's recent prime volume, including Cooperative Agreements from Fish and Wildlife Service on SCRAM model enhancement, avian risk assessment for the Gulf of Mexico, habitat use assessment at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and salmon thermal development monitoring in the Bristol Bay watershed. SCI-reportable invoicing appears minimal ($119 thousand across FY2023 only, reflecting 0.2 FTEs that year), indicating BRI's federal services contracts fall largely below the $150 thousand reporting threshold or are structured as grants rather than service contracts.

BRI operates primarily as a prime (93% of awards) with minimal subcontracting: across SCI-reportable records, subcontractors account for 29% of contractor hours, with one named subcontractor reported. The vendor appears on sub-awards under ABT Global LLC as the prime contractor on multiple NRDA technical-support calls (5 sub-awards since October 2024 for injury quantification and restoration planning on hazardous-substance release sites including Hanford, St. Louis River U.S. Steel, and LCP Chemicals Georgia), and under Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. on a Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program contract. BRI also serves as a named sub-grantee under Duke University and Carleton College on fish and wildlife research grants, leading bird and bat components of offshore wind-impact research. The organization maintains Biodiversity Futures Trust LLC as a named subsidiary.