Creare LLC

Creare LLC, doing business as Creare, is a small business engineering research and development firm headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, that delivers advanced aerospace, defense, energy, medical, and environmental technologies to federal agencies predominantly as a prime contractor (98% of recent awards) across SBIR, STTR, and other research and development vehicles. The company does not carry a federal set-aside designation but competes predominantly in full-and-open procurements and has established particular strength in SBIR and STTR participation, where the majority of its award volume concentrates.

Creare's capability portfolio spans cryogenic systems, thermal control technologies, spacecraft propellant management, advanced sensors and electronics, medical device development, composite materials, geospatial modeling and simulation, and specialized prototype development and manufacturing. Representative work includes a $20.6 million Naval Air Warfare Center definitive contract for HGU-99/P helmets system, a $13.2 million Shared Services Center SBIR Phase III contract for 90 K, 30 W cryocooler design and demonstration, an $8.8 million NASA Goddard wide-range pump contract for the Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon Titan, a $14.9 million Naval Air Warfare Center contract for FRP time-critical items and program management, and a $10.7 million Army Corps of Engineers indefinite delivery contract for GEOWATCH geospatial weather-affected terrain conditions and hazards enhancements. The company also holds grant funding from NASA and the National Institutes of Health for cryogenic and biomedical research.

Customer concentration tilts heavily toward defense and aerospace agencies. The Naval Air Warfare Center dominates both award count and dollar value (133 awards, $212 million combined potential), followed by NASA Shared Services Center (123 awards, $71.3 million), the Office of Naval Research (109 awards, $66.4 million), the Air Force Research Laboratory (134 awards, $62.4 million), and NASA Glenn Research Center (15 awards, $40.6 million). These five customer organizations account for 58% of Creare's combined potential value. Activity has grown from 37 awards in 2022 to 68 in 2024, though 2025 saw a decline to 41 awards. Fifty-four awards carrying combined potential value of $104.3 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure.

Creare holds two principal indefinite delivery vehicles: a $10.7 million single-award GEOWATCH IDIQ with the Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center running through September 2025, and a $2.5 million single-award STTR Phase III IDC with the same agency through January 2028. A Basic Ordering Agreement with the Naval Air Warfare Center established in July 2024 carries a $0 ceiling but serves as a framework for Phase III research and development across defense platforms. The company issues task orders regularly under these parent vehicles for software enhancements, computational modeling, and geospatial research support.

Creare operates predominantly as a prime and self-performs the majority of work; across SCI-reportable service contracts, the vendor carried a 1% sub-hours share, indicating minimal subcontractor engagement on those contracts. However, the award portfolio documents named teaming on select projects: Edare LLC, a Creare subsidiary specializing in medical device development and electronics design, serves as a subcontractor on medical technology and manufacturing-intensive efforts. External subcontractors on named awards include Wecoso, Inc. (cryocooler control electronics and firmware), Locust Power, Inc. and Texas A&M University System (lightweight turbogenerator design for VTOL UAVs), the University of Wisconsin System and Bowling Green State University (material characterization), Nano-C, Inc. (nanostructured carbon additives for conductive concrete), Dartmouth College and Research Triangle Institute (on grant work in hearing science and biomedical applications), and various universities and research institutions on STTR Phase I–II awards.

Regarding federal grant footprint, Creare acts as prime recipient on SBIR and project grants from NASA (Space Technology program, CFDA 43.012), the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders, CFDA 93.173), and the Department of Energy Office of Science. Recent grant work includes a $311,029 NIH/NIDCD award for multi-function earplug design supporting occupational hearing protection and monitoring, a $625,495 NASA grant for microgravity demonstration of freeze-tolerant radiator technology, and a NIH grant for open-source hearing assessment platform development. Creare also receives sub-awards as a sub-recipient under grants from Dartmouth College and Research Triangle Institute on hearing science research projects.

SCI-reported invoiced revenue on federal service contracts above the $150K threshold totaled $996 thousand in FY2022 and $5.6 million in FY2023, delivering an average workforce scale of 10.6 FTEs in FY2022 and 13.9 FTEs in FY2023 on those contracts. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable work range from $33.59/hr at the 10th percentile to a median of $60.52/hr, with senior labor and specialized expertise commanding rates through $512.96/hr at the 90th percentile. SCI data reflects a narrow slice of service contracts above the threshold and excludes goods, grants, and the company's substantial SBIR/STTR research portfolio, which dominates Creare's federal business by award count and represents a larger component of total federal revenue.

CRYOGENIC SYSTEMS; COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS; DATA ACQUISITION; FLUID MECHANICS; HEAT TRANSFER; MULTIPHASE FLOW; MACHINE DESIGN; INSTRUMENTATION; SIGNAL PROCESSING, BIOMED.