Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC

Ipsos Public Affairs, LLC, a foreign-owned, for-profit market research firm, operates predominantly as a prime contractor (96% of recent awards) delivering survey design, data collection, analysis, and program evaluation services to civilian federal agencies across a $3.1 billion combined potential-value footprint. The vendor does not hold any SBA set-aside certifications and competes full-and-open; all named awards carry no set-aside designation.

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, Ipsos Public Affairs frames its capability portfolio around quantitative and qualitative social science research. Representative prime work includes a $138.7 million definitive contract with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (awarded March 2026, running through March 2031) for Current Employment Statistics data collection center operations; a $99 million Blanket Purchase Agreement with the Department of Labor's Chief Evaluation Office (established September 2023, ultimate completion August 2028) for survey design, data analysis, and program evaluation; and a $67 million delivery order with the Defense Health Agency (awarded June 2023, running through November 2028) for TRICARE patient experience surveys under the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule. Federal work also encompasses COVID-19 and influenza vaccination knowledge assessments for the CDC, VA veteran mental health research (moral injury prevalence studies, PTSD surveys, suicide prevention), patient satisfaction measurement across VA healthcare networks, Social Security Administration customer experience surveys, and evaluation support for federal health campaigns (FDA's "The Real Cost" tobacco prevention program, CDC's national tobacco education campaign). The vendor's GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans 16 active categories, ranging from $36.95/hr entry-level interviewers (high school education) through $452.38/hr senior subject matter experts (master's degree, 18 years experience); no security-cleared positions are offered.

Customer concentration reflects a VA-heavy footprint. The top five funding agencies account for 44% of awards by count: the VA Technology Acquisition Center Austin (33 awards, $167.9 million combined potential value), VA Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 (32 awards, $197.7 million), Social Security Administration (27 awards, $29.8 million), Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration (22 awards, $6.3 million), and Defense Health Agency (14 awards, $141.2 million). By potential value, the ranking shifts slightly — VA VISN 1 anchors the portfolio at $197.7 million, followed by the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics at $189 million (driven by the large new BPA ceiling), VA Technology Acquisition Center at $167.9 million, and Defense Health Agency at $141.2 million. Within this distribution, 61 distinct agencies have placed awards, but the top five account for a concentrated 23% share of combined potential value.

Ipsos Public Affairs holds position on five named parent vehicles. The Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services vehicle (unclear issuing agency from source data) anchors the footprint with 109 task orders worth $130.8 million in combined potential value. The Multiple Award Schedule (GSA) carries 30 task orders totaling $256.3 million. Two VA-specific IDIQs — Indefinite Delivery Contract VA70117D0021 (31 task orders, $67.9 million) and Indefinite Delivery Contract 36C24E20D0019 (8 task orders, $90.1 million) — route significant work. The NCPTSD Survey Analysis Services IDIQ sustains a smaller clinical research practice (8 task orders, $1.9 million). Additionally, Ipsos holds a $2 billion Procurement of Research Evaluation and Statistics Task Orders (PRESTO) vehicle with the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences and a $75 million HHS Administration for Community Living IDIQ (awarded January 2024).

Activity has remained relatively flat — 18 awards in 2022, 17 in 2023, 17 in 2024, declining to 11 in 2025 and 3 year-to-date in 2026. Ten awards totaling $23.1 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete exposure. SCI-reported invoicing (a $150,000-and-above service-contract subset excluding goods and non-federal work) totaled $88 million across FY2022–FY2024, with annual figures of $30.4 million (FY2022), $30.5 million (FY2023), and $27.2 million (FY2024), delivered across a relatively stable 30–31 FTE federal workforce through prime contracts. Government-paid median hourly rates run around $255/hr on SCI-reportable work, with senior labor pricing reaching $1,290/hr at the 90th percentile.

Ipsos operates as a prime-heavy vendor with minimal subcontracting. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors account for roughly 1% of total contractor hours, with 12 named subcontractors appearing in the SCI dataset. In the sub-award space, Ipsos subcontracts to Research Triangle Institute (seven subcontracts spanning tobacco campaign evaluation, technology transition partnerships, and formative research) and The Rand Corporation (two subcontracts for personnel vetting surveys and public alert system surveys), among others including IBM and Dix-Gra Inc. These sub positions reflect data collection and survey execution roles — the vendor serves as a secondary research performer on larger multi-vendor federal evaluations rather than as a feeder to dominant primes. Recent sub awards span CDC-funded tobacco campaign evaluation, federal employee personnel vetting research, and partnership intermediary technology-transition work, positioning Ipsos as a specialized survey-execution subcontractor to research-management primes.