Seti Institute

The SETI Institute, a Mountain View, California–based nonprofit scientific research organization, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants and cooperative agreements in astrobiology, planetary science, astronomy, and space exploration research. The institute competes on full-and-open basis without set-aside designations, with selection driven by technical and scientific merit across dozens of concurrent research projects.

The SETI Institute's federal footprint centers on NASA funding through multiple customer offices. NASA Shared Services Center accounts for 542 awards valued at $207.1 million combined potential value, while NASA Ames Research Center places 78 awards worth $74.2 million and NASA Headquarters awards 53 grants totaling $20.4 million. These three funding streams represent 89% of the institute's combined potential value. The institute also holds sub-awards under NSF programs in geosciences and mathematical/physical sciences, and maintains minimal activity with the Department of the Navy. Across all 998 prime and sub awards in the source data spanning 1999–2026, the institute has drawn $347.6 million in combined potential value and obligated $612.7 million.

The SETI Institute's research portfolio spans exoplanet detection and characterization, planetary science investigations including Mars and outer-solar-system geology, astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry, solar physics and heliophysics, space weather modeling, and advanced data management for NASA mission archives. Representative work includes a $4.9 million cooperative agreement for Planetary Imaging and Topography (ultimate completion July 2030), a $3.5 million Phase 2 bolide detection and analysis cooperative agreement focused on time-domain data processing (completion February 2030), an $8 million Ring-Moon Systems Node data archive operation for NASA's Planetary Data System (completion November 2026), a $1.68 million Exoplanet Technologies Development cooperative agreement (completion September 2026), and $1.44 million in prebiotic organics formation research in extraterrestrial environments (completion July 2029). The institute also holds a $4.7 million Indefinite Delivery Contract with NASA Headquarters—awarded in 2020 and running through June 2025—for multidisciplinary technical support services to the Office of Planetary Protection throughout the lifecycle of spaceflight hardware, with task orders issued for delivery services valued up to $900,000.

Activity has been robust and variable: the institute received 33 awards in 2022, 27 in 2023, 57 in 2024, 45 in 2025, and 9 in the first half of 2026. Over the next twenty-four months, 106 awards valued at $52.3 million face ultimate completion, indicating substantial recompete exposure across the astrobiology, planetary science, and space physics portfolios. The institute operates primarily as a prime recipient (962 of 998 awards, 96%) and rarely subcontracts; its four named subcontract relationships are with Lockheed Martin Corporation (on solar mission consulting and instrument development for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and Multi-Slit Solar Explorer) and prime grantees including West Virginia University Research Corporation, Pennsylvania State University, and multiple university partners on NSF Physics Frontiers Center and collaborative research projects. Across SCI-reportable service contracts (a narrow slice of the institute's federal work), the source documents 8 records with 4.3 FTEs delivered in FY2022–FY2024, though invoiced revenue figures are not captured in this dataset.

The SETI Institute operates as a research recipient delivering scientific investigations, computational modeling, data analysis, advanced observational support, and technical services to federal agencies. It does not hold government-wide acquisition contracts, agency-wide IDIQs, or GSA Schedule vehicles. Selection is merit-based without SBA set-aside participation, and the institute does not pursue subcontractor teaming arrangements with larger primes. Its federal engagement is almost entirely concentrated within NASA's Science Mission Directorate and associated research centers, with negligible work routed through other civilian or defense agencies.