Florida Institute For Human & Machine Cognition Inc.

Florida Institute For Human & Machine Cognition Inc., a non-profit research organization headquartered in Pensacola, Florida, conducts applied and basic research in human-machine interaction, robotics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive modeling for defense and civilian federal agencies, operating exclusively as a prime contractor (89% of awards) and grant recipient rather than a subcontractor. The institute competes full-and-open across all awards with no set-aside designations.

IHMC's customer concentration is heavily weighted toward defense research agencies. The top five funding customers by award count account for 52% of recent awards, led by the Office of Naval Research (22 awards, $39.1 million combined potential value), the Department of the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command (17 awards), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (15 awards, $51.6 million), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (14 awards, $14.3 million). By potential value, DARPA dominates at $51.6 million across 15 awards, followed by ONR at $39.1 million and NASA at $14.3 million combined—together accounting for 90% of IHMC's total potential value. The portfolio skews heavily toward research and development work under NAICS 541711 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences), with 30 awards in that category.

Representative prime contract work includes a $24.8 million ONR definitive contract awarded August 21, 2025, for development of SQUADBOT V3, a high-performance humanoid robot for urban outdoor operations (completion August 20, 2026); a $5.98 million DARPA Other Transaction Agreement awarded January 15, 2026, for the Multimodal Optimization and Restoration Platform for Homeostatic Enhancement Under Sleep-Restriction (MORPHEUS) program (completion January 14, 2028); a $5.16 million ONR definitive contract for Agile Information Management and Dissemination (completion October 30, 2027); and a $1.59 million Air Force Research Laboratory definitive contract awarded February 21, 2025, for Long Range (LoRa)-based emergency communications supporting the PACE4ACE program (completion April 22, 2027). Smaller purchase orders include a $314 thousand Medical Command omics analyses order (completion August 24, 2027) and a $250 thousand ONR purchase order for evaluation of robotic technologies on unmanned surface vehicles.

IHMC holds two active DARPA Other Transaction IDVs: a $5.36 million multiple-award IDV awarded October 15, 2025, for general research projects, and a $628,821 multiple-award IDV awarded December 18, 2024, for the Sociotechnical Architecture Leveraged for Explanation (SCALE) program. The institute's grant work spans ONR, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Army Research Development and Engineering Command, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Science Foundation. Representative grants include a $5.34 million Air Force Research Laboratory project grant (CFDA 12.800) for multidimensional stress resilience modeling for Space Force personnel (completion September 29, 2026), a $521,527 ONR project grant (CFDA 12.300) for the Diver Health Hub for Operational Monitoring and Situational Awareness (completion January 31, 2029), and a $200 thousand National Science Foundation grant (CFDA 47.070) for computational theory of pandemic co-evolution with information and human behavior (completed January 31, 2024).

Activity has been variable but recently elevated: 7 awards in 2022, 14 in 2023, 9 in 2024, 9 in 2025, and 4 in early 2026. Nine awards carrying $38.1 million in combined potential value face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure. IHMC's subcontractor footprint is modest at 11% of awards. Named prime contractors include Lockheed Martin (Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking program work, December 2024), BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems (Research for Enhancing Airman Cognitive Health, April 2024), DCS Corporation (cognitive and physical performance in operational environments, April 2024), Aptima Inc. (multiple STRIDE robotics STTR Phase I awards, November 2023), and Sri International (Project Ascend human subject testing, March 2024). IHMC also subcontracts to universities on NSF and NIH grants, including Georgia Tech on National Institute on Aging-funded aging mobility research (February 2026), Clemson University on exoskeleton cable actuation design (January 2026), and Carnegie Mellon University on ACT-R cognitive architecture open-source ecosystem development (October 2025).