Li-Cor, Inc.

Li-Cor, Inc., doing business as Li-Cor Bio Sciences, manufactures high-precision environmental monitoring and scientific instrumentation sold to federal agencies as a prime contractor on full-and-open purchase orders and delivery orders, with no set-aside posture and no subcontract footprint. The Lincoln, Nebraska-based for-profit corporation specializes in trace gas analyzers, portable photosynthesis measurement systems, eddy covariance flux equipment, soil respiration chambers, plant canopy analyzers, porometers, and molecular imaging platforms (Odyssey product line) used for environmental research, agricultural science, and biomedical applications. Li-Cor competes predominantly full-and-open, unsupported by SBA set-asides, and operates as a manufacturer of goods under NAICS 334516 (Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing) and related codes.

Li-Cor's federal footprint centers on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, which accounts for the top five customer slots by award count and near-parity by potential value: the Plains Area (77 awards, $5 million), the generalized ARS Field Research Implementation and Information Delivery office (125 awards, $4.3 million), the Pacific West Area (83 awards, $2.5 million), and the Midwest Area (71 awards, $2.5 million) together represent 26% of total recent awards. The U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service (across Regional research stations), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health divisions (including the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and others), the Smithsonian Institution, Department of Defense (Navy and Army Corps of Engineers), Department of the Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs, and NASA round out a 130-agency customer base. Customer concentration is shallow: the top five agencies account for only 1% of combined potential value, reflecting Li-Cor's position as a commodity supplier to multiple geographically dispersed federal research sites rather than a prime on large strategic contracts.

Li-Cor places nearly all work through the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule (MAS/Federal Supply Schedules), with 285 task orders yielding $16.1 million in combined potential value, followed by the GSA Federal Supply Schedule GS24F1041B (201 task orders, $4.5 million) and GS24F1183C (258 task orders, $8.7 million). The company holds no named GWACs, BPAs beyond commodity set-asides, or agency-wide IDIQs. Delivery is typically 30 to 60 days after award, FOB destination, at firm fixed prices ranging from roughly $10,000 to $2.5 million per order, with the largest recent individual award a $2.5 million delivery order from USDA ARS Plains Area in June 2024 for multiple analyzers and chambers. Representative recent contracts include a $552,256 delivery order for a greenhouse gas measurement system with integrated analyzers to USDA ARS (December 2024), a $440,496 purchase order for three LI-870 Arctic respirometer systems to the Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Laboratory (April 2023), a $285,004 definitive contract for twelve gas analyzers and three plant canopy analyzers to NOAA (September 2023), and a $277,202 purchase order for a soil respiration measurement system to USDA ARS Northeast Area (September 2024). Most recent awards cluster in September 2026 and earlier calendar quarters, reflecting seasonal research equipment procurement cycles tied to growing seasons and fiscal-year budget cycles.

Activity has remained steady across the past five years: 49 awards in 2022, 51 in 2023, 65 in 2024 (peak year), declining to 20 in 2025 and 21 in 2026 through late September. Combined potential value across all 1,646 awards stands at $1.73 billion, though only $64.8 million (4%) has been obligated to date, indicating substantial unexercised authority and backlog on long-term multi-year supply arrangements. Sixteen awards carrying $938 thousand in combined potential value reach completion within the next twenty-four months and face recompete. Li-Cor holds no federal grant prime awards in the source material; two sub-award entries identify Li-Cor as a partner supplier to Nevada System of Higher Education (September 2023) for evapotranspiration measurement development and to Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. (May 2023) for eddy correlation flux equipment under what appears to be a USDA or Department of Energy energy research award. The company's federal SAM.gov presence dates to 2001, underscoring a twenty-five-year track record as a consistent, full-and-open supplier of scientific infrastructure to civilian research agencies with minimal recompete exposure and no primary dependence on any single customer or vehicle.