Catalyst Campus For Technology And Innovation, Inc.

Catalyst Campus For Technology And Innovation, Inc., a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit organization, holds a $151 billion Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract as a prime contractor with the Missile Defense Agency awarded December 29, 2025, and acts as prime recipient on multiple federal research and economic development grants, but operates without SBA set-aside certifications and competes full-and-open across its federal footprint.

The vendor's contract portfolio centers on the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) vehicle, a multi-domain defense system contract with performance extending through December 2035. SHIELD procures advanced R&D, prototyping, systems engineering, weapon design, production, test and evaluation, and cybersecurity modernization capabilities for detecting, tracking, intercepting, and neutralizing air, missile, space, cyber, and hybrid threats across all flight phases. The initial delivery order issued December 29, 2025, carries a firm fixed price of five hundred dollars with performance in Huntsville, Alabama; subsequent task orders are to be structured across multiple NAICS codes and classification levels with appropriate facility clearances. The contract leverages artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital engineering, and open systems architectures.

On the grant side, Catalyst Campus functions as a regional innovation ecosystem coordinator. The vendor is a recipient of a $870,657 Economic Development Administration project grant (CFDA 11.307) awarded August 30, 2022, supporting creation of a technology business accelerator program in Ogden, Utah, focused on training and support for entrepreneurs in defense and aerospace industries. Catalyst Campus also leads a National Science Foundation NSF Engines Development Award (Cooperative Agreement, awarded May 15, 2023, completing April 30, 2025) as recipient on the Resilient Space Infrastructures, Systems, and Economy (RISE) project, a multi-stakeholder regional innovation initiative spanning Colorado Springs and southern Colorado that organizes across technological innovation, commercialization acceleration, and community and workforce development pillars. The vendor is recipient of an Air Force Research Laboratory Cooperative Agreement for SPACECAMP (awarded June 1, 2023, completing June 1, 2028) and a Department of Veterans Affairs Office of VA Business Development project grant for VBOC 2023 Expansion at Mt. Carmel Veteran Service Center (awarded May 1, 2023, completing April 30, 2024). The vendor also participated as a consortia member on a Platform One Commercialization Prototype Project Other Transaction Agreement with AFLCMC Joint Base San Antonio (2021–2023).

Customer concentration is distributed across six agencies, with the Missile Defense Agency anchoring the contract-side footprint and economic development, research, and small-business grants distributed across NSF, EDA, VA, and Air Force Research Laboratory. Activity has grown from one award in 2021 to two in 2025, with combined obligated dollars ($8.2 million) substantially exceeding the stated combined potential value ($500) — a reflection of the gap between contract ceiling values and actual task-order obligations. One award (the VA VBOC grant) completes within the next twenty-four months. The vendor operates as a nonprofit collaborative ecosystem serving aerospace and defense sectors and does not subcontract; 100% of recent awards are prime positions.