Cloudsci LLC

Cloudsci LLC, a Fort Collins, Colorado-based small business, develops advanced aerosol measurement and sensing instrumentation for federal research agencies as a prime contractor under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, competing exclusively under total small-business set-asides.

The company's customer base concentrates heavily in federal research: NASA's Shared Services Center accounts for four awards ($2.1 million combined potential value), the Department of the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command holds two awards ($1.5 million), and the Department of Energy's Office of Science has placed three awards. All nine recent awards are prime—Cloudsci does not subcontract—and span a mix of contract and grant vehicles. Recent SBIR Phase II work includes a $1.318851 million definitive contract awarded by Army RDECOM in April 2026 to develop a portable instrument prototype for morphological classification of biological and nonbiological aerosol particles (completion April 2028), and a $844,528 definitive contract from NASA awarded July 2025 for an airborne holographic probe for small ice detection (completion July 2027). Cloudsci's SBIR Phase I efforts include a $148,812 purchase order from NASA's Shared Services Center for airborne holographic probe development (completed February 2025) and a $159,069 Phase I effort for the Airborne Multiangle Aerosol Size Spectrometer also from NASA (completed February 2024). The company pursues sequential SBIR phases — Phase I proof-of-concept awards ($148,812 to $182,955 range) advancing to Phase II maturation efforts ($844,528 to $1.318851 million range) — positioning itself as a modal player in federal small-business research instrumentation.

Federal grant activity flows through the Department of Energy's Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049). Cloudsci received a $256,500 Project Grant awarded February 2025 for development of a Single Aerosol Particle Spectrometer for in situ chemical composition measurement (performance through February 2026), a $255,417 award in February 2024 for a low-cost fluorescence spectrometer for automatic pollen and coarse-mode aerosol identification in urban environments (completed November 2024), and a $0 listed award from February 2023 for a low-cost holographic sensor for urban aerosol characterization (running through March 2027). Award activity has held steady at two to three awards per year over the past four years, with four awards (combined potential value $3.1 million) facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore subject to recompete. The vendor's core capability portfolio centers on portable and airborne aerosol sensors, multiangle spectrometers, holographic sensing probes, and fluorescence-based detection systems for atmospheric science and environmental monitoring applications.