Policy Research Associates, Inc.

Policy Research Associates, Inc., a woman-owned small business based in Troy, New York, delivers behavioral health technical assistance, program evaluation, research, and criminal justice consulting to federal agencies as a prime contractor (88% of recent awards) and on grant sub-awards. PRA competes under mixed posture — the majority of recent SAMHSA prime delivery orders carry no set-aside designation, though earlier SAMHSA work included partial small-business set-asides, and the vendor also places task orders on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule.

PRA's customer concentration is extreme and skewed toward the Department of Health and Human Services. SAMHSA accounts for 29 awards worth $226.7 million in combined potential value, while HHS's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration anchors seven awards with $500.7 million in potential value — together representing 97% of the vendor's combined potential-value portfolio. The Department of Justice (Office of Justice Programs and Bureau of Justice Assistance) contributes six to four awards respectively but smaller dollar exposure. Recent prime delivery orders include a $13.69 million SAMHSA IDIQ award (Domains 1S and 5S) issued August 19, 2024, for technical assistance and program support across behavioral health initiatives; a $9.53 million SAMHSA 3 IDIQ delivery order (September 8, 2026) for training and technical assistance to public service agencies delivering community-based treatment and recovery support services to youth and adults with mental illness; and a $9.03 million delivery order from SAMHSA's IDIQ Domain 5S (September 30, 2026) for the Homelessness and Housing Resource Network. Notable prior work includes the Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families Technical Assistance Center — a $33.6 million Partial Small Business SAMHSA 3 IDIQ delivery order (awarded September 8, 2022, extending through September 7, 2027) on which PRA invoiced $17.9 million across fiscal years 2022 through 2025.

PRA holds positions on three active SAMHSA IDIQ vehicles (SAMHSA 1, 2, and 3), placing 13 task orders worth $188 million in combined potential value, and maintains a seat on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule with seven task orders carrying $4.4 million. Within the next twenty-four months, one award (the SMVF TA Center delivery order) reaches ultimate completion with $33.6 million in combined potential value, creating a single-year recompete exposure.

Across SCI-reportable service contracts, PRA invoiced $42.5 million in prime contract revenue from FY2022 through FY2025, with workforce stable at roughly 25–29 FTEs annually. Government-paid hourly rates on SCI contracts spanned a median of $152.78 per hour, with senior labor reaching the 90th percentile of $307.88 per hour. The vendor self-performs the vast majority of delivery — across prime contracts, subcontractors account for approximately 1% of total contractor hours, with seven named subcontractors reported in the SCI dataset. PRA operates predominantly as a prime on SAMHSA and HHS platforms, building its own delivery teams rather than relying on subcontracting.

On the grant side, PRA serves as a sub-recipient on awards from the University of California Los Angeles, the Unified Court System of New York State, the Health Care Authority, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and Policy Research Inc. (a distinct legal entity). Grant work includes Sequential Intercept Model workshops for opioid and drug court implementation in rural New York counties, technical assistance on statewide innovation models for behavioral health and homelessness, and research support on youth activism and social change. The vendor's award portfolio spans eighteen federal agencies, though 60% of awards concentrate within SAMHSA and HHS's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration, with the remainder distributed across NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, HRSA, and DOJ components. PRA's capability framing in the source centers on behavioral health program development, technical assistance delivery, research execution, criminal justice intervention design, and data analysis in social determinants, mental illness, substance use disorders, and housing instability.

PRA, Inc. offers comprehensive services integrating research with policy at the federal, state, and local levels. PRA has special expertise in such specific areas as mental health, training, criminal justice, homelessness, children and violence.