International Research And Exchanges Board Inc.

International Research and Exchanges Board Inc., doing business as International Research & Exchange Bo, is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that acts as a federal grant recipient for the Department of State, USAID, and the National Science Foundation, delivering international educational exchange, media literacy, democracy-building, and professional development programs globally. IREX operates overwhelmingly as a grant recipient (93% of recent awards are prime grants and cooperative agreements), with no federal contract prime position and minimal subcontract work (7% of recent awards).

IREX's customer concentration is heavily skewed toward the Department of State. The top five funding agencies account for 64% of recent awards by count, led by the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (108 awards), followed by USAID (35 awards, $7.9 million combined potential value), the Department of State Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (32 awards), the Department of State Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (31 awards), and the Department of State at large (15 awards). By combined potential value, USAID Jordan and Serbia anchor the largest opportunities—$20.6 million and $20.1 million respectively—with both funding media innovation and digital-sector development activities. The second ranking diverges from award count because USAID's regional missions carry higher individual award values than State's distributed exchange programs.

IREX's primary work falls into three capability buckets. Educational exchange programs dominate the portfolio: the Fulbright Teacher Exchanges ($6.72 million cooperative agreement awarded in January 2026 through May 2030), the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (15.95 million awarded in August 2021), the Community Solutions Program (supporting community leaders ages 26–39 from over 110 countries), and the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (6.6 million through May 2024). Media and information integrity work includes the Media Innovation Activity in Serbia ($13.9 million cost-plus-award-fee contract through USAID with Serbian media subcontractors), media literacy and resilience-to-disinformation programs across Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, and the Central Asia Design Hub supporting media production capacity. Democracy and civil-society strengthening programs target specific regions: Iraq university initiatives, Palestinian vocational education, Ukrainian American Spaces programming, and stabilization and IDP integration support. IREX subcontracts to Pact, Inc. on multi-country USAID initiatives addressing information integrity (Mali), civil-society strengthening (Dominican Republic, Sudan), and gender-based violence prevention, and has historically partnered with the Aspen Institute, the University of Texas at Austin, and Arizona State University on exchange-program components.

Activity has declined from 23 awards in 2022 to single-digit volumes in 2025–2026, reflecting a shift from operational program delivery toward closeout and transition activities. Sixteen awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, suggesting material recompete exposure across exchange programs and regional media initiatives. SCI-reportable federal service-contract invoicing totaled $18.5 million across FY2023–FY2024 (11.6 million in FY2023, 6.8 million in FY2024) with a declining FTE trajectory from 55 FTEs in FY2023 to 31 FTEs in FY2024, indicating contraction in the near term. Hourly rates on SCI-reportable work median around $85.48/hr, with senior labor reaching $102.03/hr and entry-level pricing at $65.11/hr. IREX reports 12% average sub-hours share across prime contracts and names nine subcontractors, reflecting a lean delivery model that routes most work through direct hires rather than extensive subcontracting.