Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Incorporated

Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Incorporated, doing business as Orau, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research consortium of over 120 Ph.D.-granting universities headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, operates as a federal prime contractor and grant recipient delivering scientific research, technical assistance, workforce development, and integrated technical services to federal agencies across health physics, environmental research, materials science, quantum computing, and advanced manufacturing. The organization competes full-and-open across civilian and defense agencies with no set-aside positioning, drawing 97 percent of recent awards as prime contractor or IDV holder and 3 percent as subcontractor to other federal primes.

Orau's customer base concentrates heavily in defense research and health sciences. The Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command anchors the portfolio with 843 awards spanning basic scientific research in materials, quantum sciences, photonics, and artificial intelligence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accounts for the largest potential-value concentration at $7.57 billion across 15 awards, driven principally by a $36.5 million cost-plus-award-fee definitive contract for dose reconstruction and related activities supporting NIOSH responsibilities under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (awarded April 17, 2026, ultimate completion February 28, 2027) and a $57.75 million cost-plus-award-fee contract for dose reconstruction services (awarded September 30, 2024, completion March 29, 2026). The Department of Energy Office of Science represents the second-largest dollar concentration at $7.43 billion across 49 awards. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a $34.1 million delivery order (April 1, 2026, completion March 31, 2031) for specialized technical professionals and subject matter experts to participate in healthcare delivery and payment reform research. The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security round out active civilian agencies, with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issuing an $8.5 million delivery order for health physics training (September 22, 2025, completion November 30, 2030).

Orau holds seat on the OASIS+ Unrestricted indefinite-delivery contract (GSA Federal Acquisition Service, awarded December 17, 2024, through December 16, 2029) and maintains a single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate for peer and merit review services (awarded September 29, 2025, through October 28, 2028). The top five parent vehicles by task-order volume are a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention BPA (347 task orders, $10.7 million combined potential value), an energy-sector IDIQ (276 task orders, $223 million), the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (97 task orders, $151.9 million), the Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services vehicle (33 task orders, $313 million), and an EPA indefinite-delivery contract (32 task orders, $40.1 million). Across SCI-reportable prime service contracts, Orau invoiced roughly $1.57 billion between FY2022 and FY2025, with median government-paid hourly rates around $99/hr across 353 to 390 FTEs per fiscal year, ranging from entry-level research assistants at $35/hr through senior subject-matter experts at $241/hr. The organization's GSA Schedule portfolio spans 165 labor categories with no security-clearance requirements.

Orau operates predominantly through direct-hire delivery teams; across SCI-reportable prime contracts, named subcontractors performed an average of 4 percent of total contractor hours, with 49 named subs supporting specialized tasks. Notable subcontracting relationships anchor to large federal facility management primes: UT-Battelle LLC (Oak Ridge National Laboratory operations, multiple sub-awards for personnel support), Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (National Security Campus management), and Pantexas Deterrence (Pantex Plant operations). In the grant space, Orau subcontracts to General Atomics (technical services spanning multiple cooperative agreements) and Northwestern University (radionuclide contamination mitigation and lung injury dosimetry research). The organization also receives sub-grant awards from General Atomics and Northwestern under CDC and NIH grantor roles.

Orau's federal grant footprint is substantial and concentrated in Army basic science. The Department of the Army Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) issued 843 cooperative agreements under the Basic Scientific Research program (CFDA 12.431) spanning quantum sciences, photonics, neuromorphic materials, advanced ceramics, and autonomous systems. Representative awards include $292.8 million for optimized microring resonator design in photonic integrated circuits (September 11, 2025, completion September 30, 2027), $217.5 million for embedded bias control in photonic integrated circuits (September 22, 2025, completion October 31, 2027), $697.8 million for photonics and quantum sciences research under the Army Educational Outreach Program (December 9, 2025, completion August 31, 2026), and $3.96 million for the 2026 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions Summer Research Program (February 25, 2026, completion September 30, 2026). The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded $358 thousand for substance use disorder treatment bed availability research (September 1, 2026, completion June 30, 2031). West Point Military Academy issued awards for advanced computational modeling for nutrition and precision health ($190 thousand, August 3, 2026), energy resilience through anaerobic digestion ($132 thousand, March 9, 2026), and accelerating undergraduate AI applications ($226 thousand, January 20, 2026). Office of the Secretary of Defense and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also fund Orau research in quantum sciences, UAV aeroacoustics, and systems engineering.

Recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months totals $3.92 billion across 133 awards reaching ultimate completion, a significant portion anchored to the CDC dose reconstruction contracts and the Department of Energy portfolio. Activity has remained relatively flat at 81 to 136 awards per year over the past five years, with 2026 showing 99 awards to date and a two-week lag in source currency.