National Opinion Research Center

National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, operating as Norc, is a non-profit research organization that conducts large-scale survey research, data collection, statistical analysis, and program evaluation for federal civilian agencies as a prime contractor (90% of recent awards) and occasionally as a subcontractor to other research primes. Norc competes on a full-and-open basis across its federal footprint; the organization holds no small-business set-asides and does not compete under socioeconomic categories.

Norc's federal capability portfolio centers on probability-based national surveys, longitudinal panel management, health surveillance data collection, program evaluation, and statistical analysis supporting policy research across health, education, labor, and social policy domains. Representative prime work includes a $310 million single-award indefinite delivery contract with the CDC for the National Immunization Survey (tracking vaccination coverage among U.S. children and adolescents through survey research and data collection, with multiple delivery orders totaling over $200 million across 2023–2026), a $900 million single-award IDC with the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration for energy survey and analytical support, a $344.7 million IDIQ with the Health Resources and Services Administration for evaluations and evidence-building activities, a $56.4 million delivery order from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for Transforming Maternal Health Model implementation and monitoring (with subcontractors The Lewin Group, Bland & Associates, and Coral Health Advisors providing healthcare consulting and payment model design), and a $42.5 million Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project delivery order from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for time-and-materials data enhancements and analytics. On the grant side, Norc is a recipient on cooperative agreements and project grants from the National Institutes of Health (including $1.89 million from the National Institute on Aging for the Dementia DataHub surveillance infrastructure and $1.39 million from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control for fall prevention evaluation), the National Science Foundation (including $7.998 million for General Social Survey modernization and $2.998 million for standards and metrics for probability survey panels), the Department of Justice National Institute of Justice (including $1.5 million for elder abuse equity research and $1.996 million for adolescent relationship abuse research), and the Department of Education (including awards under the Comprehensive Centers Program and the PRESTO multiple-award contract).

Customer concentration is dominated by the Department of Health and Human Services. The top five federal customers account for approximately 31% of recent awards by count but 71% of combined potential value, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services anchoring dollar volume at $5.09 billion across 53 awards, the CDC Pittsburgh office commanding $2.14 billion across 127 awards, and the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences representing $2.02 billion across 29 awards. This split reflects CMS and Education's reliance on large, multi-year indefinite delivery vehicles while CDC places numerous smaller-ceiling delivery orders against its $310 million NIS single-award IDC.

Norc's vehicle position spans multiple indefinite delivery structures. The organization holds the $310 million CDC National Immunization Survey single-award IDC (running through 2029), the $900 million Department of Energy Energy Information Administration single-award IDC (through 2034), the $344.7 million HRSA Evaluations and Evidence Building single-award IDIQ (through 2026), the $3.5 billion CMS Research, Measurement, Assessment, Design, and Analysis 3 (RMADA 3) multiple-award IDC (through 2031), the $2 billion Department of Education PRESTO multiple-award contract (through 2028), a $70 million FDA Quick Turnaround Social Science Research Services multiple-award BPA (through 2030), the unrestricted OASIS+ multiple-award indefinite delivery contract with GSA Federal Acquisition Service (no ceiling specified; through 2030), and a $99 million Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy BPA issued against the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (through 2028). Across all vehicles, the GSA Multiple Award Schedule generates the most task-order activity with 109 orders valued at $1.26 billion. Activity has grown moderately year over year—59 awards in 2022 to 84 in 2024—but declined to 60 awards in 2025 and only 15 in 2026 (reflecting incomplete source data for the current fiscal year). Seventy-one awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $582.8 million and represent recompete opportunity.

Across SCI-reportable federal service contracts (contracts above $150,000 threshold), Norc invoiced $541.6 million in aggregate across FY2022–FY2024, with annual invoicing rising from $162.8 million in FY2022 to $207.9 million in FY2024. The SCI dataset shows roughly 732 to 820 FTEs deployed annually to federal service contracts, representing a workforce scale committed to federal research operations. On SCI-reported prime contracts, Norc self-performed approximately 93% of contractor hours and engaged subcontractors for 7% of total hours across 109 named subs, signaling a predominantly in-house delivery model supplemented by specialized subcontractor support. Government-paid hourly rates on federal service contracts ranged from a 10th percentile of $52.87/hr (telephone interviewers) to a median of $169.60/hr (research scientists, analysts, statisticians) to a 90th percentile of $407.92/hr (senior research strategists and principal investigators). Norc's GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans 153 active categories from $33.33/hr telephone interviewers through $497.15/hr MR&A strategists, with mid-career research and analytics roles clustering in the $150–$280/hr band and no security-cleared positions offered.

Teaming is selective. Norc operates primarily as a prime contractor building its own internal delivery teams, with subcontract engagement concentrated on specialized healthcare consulting, payment model design, and international development expertise. On the CMS Transforming Maternal Health contract, Norc engaged The Lewin Group (healthcare policy and program evaluation), Bland & Associates (project management and compliance), and Coral Health Advisors (WOSB-certified value-based payment design). On education and social policy grants, Norc partners with university research collaborators and community-based organizations (such as YMCA of the USA and Boys and Girls Clubs of America on adolescent relationship research). This model reflects Norc's strength in research infrastructure and data operations paired with selective use of external subject-matter expertise.

The organization's federal footprint is unambiguously civilian, with no visible defense or intelligence work. Concentration spans health surveillance, health services research, education policy and outcomes, labor economics, social science infrastructure (including the General Social Survey and AmeriSpeak probability panel), and program evaluation across agencies spanning HHS, Labor, Education, NSF, DOJ, and others. Norc competes full-and-open across all work and has established itself as a trusted federal research partner for large-scale, longitudinal, and nationally representative survey operations where probability-based sampling, data quality, and statistical rigor are mission-critical.