The Ecological Society Of America Inc.

The Ecological Society of America Inc., a tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, serves as a prime federal grant recipient in science education and environmental research, with no federal contract prime footprint. ESA operates almost exclusively as a grant recipient (99% of recent awards), not as a contractor, and competes in full-and-open federal grant competitions rather than set-asides. The organization's federal work centers on ecology education, workforce development, and science communication programs funded by NSF, the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA, the EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

ESA's capability portfolio reflects its mission as a professional scientific society and educator. Recent representative work includes a $750,000 NSF Division of Undergraduate Education project grant awarded in October 2026 to scale evidence-based teaching in ecology through the Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework, with deliverables including modular online courses, faculty communities of practice, and assessment of student learning outcomes across undergraduate ecology programs running through September 2029. A $499,700 NSF Biological Sciences RCN-UBE project grant (November 2021 through October 2025) focuses on transforming ecology education through immersive, four-dimensional learning experiences. ESA also received a cooperative agreement from the National Park Service (June 2022 through August 2027) to conduct multi-day field ecology study trips in national parks for underrepresented college students, combining experiential learning with career exploration in park science. Additional recent grants include an NSF-funded workshop on indigenous knowledges in ecology (July 2022), a project on equity and inclusion in open-access publishing (May 2022 through April 2025), and a collaborative RCN-LEAPS grant with the Society for Freshwater Sciences and the Wildlife Society to build leadership capacity for diversity and inclusion in professional societies (April 2022 through March 2025).

Customer concentration splits unevenly across volume and dollar value. By award count, the National Science Foundation dominates with 32 awards out of 167 total (covering 50% of the award base), followed by the EPA Office of Research and Development (18 awards, $54 thousand combined potential value) and the U.S. Geological Survey (15 awards, $422 thousand). By potential value, however, USGS leads with $422 thousand across 15 awards, followed by the Army Corps of Engineers ($60 thousand across 7 awards) and the Fish and Wildlife Service ($59 thousand across 6 awards). NSF's volume advantage reflects its role as primary funder of education and professional-development grants, while USGS captures the largest single-award values. Over the past five years, award volume has contracted sharply — four awards each in 2021 and 2022, declining to one award each in 2023 and 2024 — with one grant appearing in October 2026. Combined potential value across all 167 awards stands at $1.1 million, though obligated dollars total $12.7 million, indicating that completed grants have carried values substantially higher than current pipeline potential.