Council Of American Overseas Research Centers

Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), a Washington, DC–based tax-exempt nonprofit federation, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants supporting international educational and cultural exchange, scholarly research fellowships, and cultural heritage preservation across overseas research centers in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the South Caucasus. CAORC competes full-and-open with no set-aside designations across a portfolio that runs 95% prime awards and 5% sub-awards, almost entirely on the grant side.

CAORC's customer base concentrates heavily on State Department and cultural agencies. The Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs accounts for 27 awards (43% of the portfolio by count), the Smithsonian Institution for 21 awards ($1.6 million combined potential value), the National Endowment for the Humanities for 5 awards, and the Department of State Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs for 1 award. These four agencies represent 87% of recent awards by count and 76% of combined potential value. The divergence between award count and dollar concentration reflects CAORC's role as a multi-year cooperative-agreement administrator drawing steady, modest-value appropriations from Smithsonian (annual $125,000 definitive contracts since 2022) alongside larger grant programs from State and NEH.

CAORC's primary grant footprint includes three cooperative agreements with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (most recently valued at $5 million through December 31, 2026, and September 15, 2024–December 31, 2027) that provide administrative and programmatic support to 23 overseas research centers worldwide and fund multi-country research fellowship programs and overseas faculty development seminars. The National Endowment for the Humanities Promotion of the Humanities Research program (CFDA 45.161) funds the CAORC-NEH FPIRI Research Fellowship Program, which supports long-term American scholar research at overseas research centers in understudied regions; the most recent award ($279,594, January 1, 2025–June 30, 2028) serves this function. CAORC also holds a $127,820 U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grant (CFDA 19.025) from the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, awarded October 1, 2026, to rehabilitate the 20th-century Al Ranad Palace in Tarim, Yemen while establishing community vocational training and economic development initiatives through February 28, 2028. Beyond direct prime awards, CAORC subcontracts to the Institute of International Education Inc. on federal grants (sub-awards dated November 12, 2024; March 22, 2024; and April 24, 2023).

Activity has declined modestly across the past five years — from four awards in 2023 to one in 2026 — though the combined potential value figure ($2.1 million) understates real obligated dollars ($115.2 million) because multi-year cooperative agreements carry front-loaded appropriations. Three awards reach completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure. CAORC's capability portfolio, classified under NAICS 541600–All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services and PSC code Support-Professional (Other), centers on research coordination, international scholarly exchange administration, cultural heritage documentation, and fellowship program management for federal cultural-diplomacy and academic-research missions.