Elder Research, Inc.

Elder Research, Inc., a Charlottesville, Virginia-based data science and artificial intelligence consulting firm, operates as a subsidiary of ManTech International Corporation and delivers advanced analytics, predictive modeling, machine learning, and AI-driven research and development services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on 96% of recent awards and as a subcontractor on the remainder. The vendor competes predominantly full-and-open, holding no SBA set-aside certifications at the prime level; however, Elder Research qualifies as a small business and frequently receives Total Small Business set-aside designations on federal grant awards and certain IDIQs.

Customer concentration sits heavily with the Internal Revenue Service, which accounts for $753.5 million in combined potential value across 16 awards (35% of the top-five agencies' dollar share), followed by the Securities and Exchange Commission with $112.5 million across 22 awards. The Treasury Department's IRS, SEC, Department of Labor (Office of Inspector General and Office of Workers Compensation Program), and Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection together represent 56% of recent awards. The SEC places high-frequency smaller task orders, while IRS anchors the largest dollar commitments; this divergence signals a customer base mixing large analytical platforms with smaller recurring analytics engagements.

Elder Research holds substantial vehicle positions that anchor its federal pipeline. The vendor was awarded a $700 million Data Analytics and Innovation Support 2.0 (DAIS 2.0) Blanket Purchase Agreement with the IRS on December 20, 2024, set aside for Total Small Business and running through December 19, 2029. A $249 million AI Talent 2.0 Basic Ordering Agreement with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (awarded May 2, 2023, with ultimate completion February 3, 2026) provides a recompete cliff in the near term. Newly awarded in late 2024, Elder Research secured positions on the OASIS+ Unrestricted multiple-award IDIQ (GSA Federal Acquisition Service, no dollar ceiling specified in the source, completion December 16, 2029) and the OASIS+ Total Small Business set-aside IDIQ (also GSA, completion December 18, 2029). Most recently, on November 1, 2026, NASA awarded Elder Research a $20 billion multiple-award GWAC under the SEWP VI program (Total Small Business set-aside, running through October 31, 2036) for IT communication and audio-visual solutions. The Multiple Award Schedule remains the vendor's highest-traffic vehicle, with 68 task orders and $911.4 million in combined potential value. Within the next twenty-four months, three awards totaling $11.9 million reach completion and face recompete risk.

Recent prime contract work exemplifies Elder Research's capability portfolio. In September 2026, the vendor secured a $6.08 million firm fixed-price definitive contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for state and local tactical communications surge support delivered through specialized IT systems personnel in Washington, DC (completion September 29, 2027). Customs and Border Protection issued a $11.48 million time-and-materials BPA call in September 2025 for data scientist support to the Advanced Trade Analytics Platform (Charlottesville, Virginia, completion September 23, 2026), and a $1.66 million time-and-materials BPA call in September 2025 for Office of Trade Large Language Model Vision AI project work (completion September 14, 2026). The Securities and Exchange Commission awarded a $11.78 million delivery order in September 2024 for analytical methods and support under MAS (Charlottesville, Virginia, completion March 25, 2030), with FY2025 invoiced labor of $1.7 million across 5.1 FTEs at a derived blended rate of $157.44 per hour; approximately 23% of contractor hours on this engagement were subcontracted. The Internal Revenue Service issued a $2.86 million BPA call in August 2025 under DAIS 2.0 for identity theft detection models and filters (Charlottesville, Virginia, completion August 10, 2026), with FY2025 invoiced activity of $235 thousand across 0.4 FTEs. The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency awarded a $3.3 million time-and-materials BPA call in September 2025 for IT professional services (Fairfax, Virginia, completion November 20, 2026) with no subcontractor engagement reported in FY2025.

Service Contract Inventory data shows SCI-reportable invoiced revenue grew from $4.7 million in FY2022 to $10.8 million in FY2025, with the FTE workforce trajectory scaling from 17.2 to 33.1 across the same period. Government-paid hourly rates on prime SCI contracts run a median of $154.14 per hour, with the 90th percentile reaching $216.93 per hour; the 10th percentile reflects zero-rate outliers likely attributable to expense allocation or administrative coding rather than substantive labor delivery. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors perform approximately 10% of total contractor hours, with 19 named subcontractors engaged over the reporting window. This profile indicates Elder Research builds delivery teams in-house and uses subs selectively to fill specialized skill gaps. On the GSA Schedule, Elder Research offers 186 active labor categories spanning $84.26 to $416.38 per hour, with roles ranging from Data Analyst (bachelor's, two years' experience, no clearance required) through Principal Chief Scientist (PhD, seventeen years' experience, no clearance required). No security-cleared labor is offered.

In its subcontractor role, Elder Research delivers data science and machine learning expertise to Deloitte Consulting LLP on gaming industry tip compliance and integrated financial and actuarial contract work (awards September 2024, January 2025, September 2025), provides data analytics consulting to Booz Allen Hamilton on Department of Defense strategic partner business operations improvement (April 2025), and performs R&D work on additively manufactured alloys for Southwest Research Institute in support of a DARPA BAA (March 2025).

Federal grant activity is limited. Elder Research received a federal grant award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in August 2022 (ultimate completion December 31, 2024) for development of a harmful algal bloom surveillance pipeline using environmental DNA sequencing (HABSSED), intended to democratize early detection of harmful algal blooms affecting the blue economy. The vendor also holds STTR Phase I and Phase II awards: a $149.9 thousand NASA STTR Phase I for uncertainty quantification of unknown dynamic systems through universal differential equations (July 2022, completed August 2023), a $156.4 thousand Air Force Research Laboratory STTR Phase I for cross-domain strategic planning (January 2022, completed June 2022), and a $847 thousand Shared Services Center STTR Phase II for uncertainty quantification through universal differential equations (January 2024, completion May 2026).

Activity volume has been volatile. The vendor recorded seven awards in 2022, three in 2023, ten in 2024, nine in 2025, and two awards through early November 2026; this trajectory suggests uneven year-to-year task order flow rather than sustained growth, with recompete exposure concentrated in the AI Talent 2.0 BOA concluding in February 2026 and the IRS DAIS 2.0 vehicle ceiling of $700 million anchoring long-term revenue potential through 2029.