Southern Research Institute

Southern Research Institute, doing business as Southern Research, is a nonprofit biomedical research organization that serves as a prime contractor to federal agencies for preclinical drug development, infectious disease modeling, vaccine and therapeutic evaluation, and toxicology testing. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Southern Research is a child entity of the University of Alabama and competes in full-and-open federal procurements without set-asides, holding a portfolio of 1,397 prime and sub awards valued at $3.23 billion in combined potential value across 64 customer agencies.

Southern Research's customer concentration centers heavily on health and defense research agencies, with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) anchoring the portfolio at 110 awards and $1.48 billion in combined potential value—81% of the top-five-customer dollar concentration. The National Cancer Institute, NIAID DEA OA Acquisitions, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke round out the top five by potential value, collectively representing $2.62 billion. By award count, the Department of the Army places the second-highest volume (328 awards, $303 thousand combined potential value) but contributes minimal dollar exposure; the National Institutes of Health broadly accounts for a plurality of award volume but NIAID dominates by dollars. The divergence signals NIAID's reliance on large IDIQs and delivery orders while Army work skews toward smaller purchases and task orders.

Capability footprint spans preclinical infectious disease models, hit-to-lead compound progression studies, pharmacokinetic and safety assessment of drug candidates, vaccine and therapeutic evaluation, high-throughput screening, in vitro antimicrobial testing, and GLP-compliant toxicology studies. Recent representative work includes a $2.35 million delivery order from NIAID for nonclinical services supporting development of interventional agents for infectious diseases (May 2022); a $498,476 delivery order from NIAID for pharmacokinetics studies of the long-acting HIV therapeutic Telacebec in rats (July 2024); a $403,478 delivery order from NIAID for hit-to-lead progression studies on anti-HIV lead compounds (September 2023); a $355,650 firm fixed price purchase order from CDC for preclinical toxicology assessment of an inactivated rotavirus vaccine microneedle patch (June 2022); and a $136,000 purchase order from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to screen assay-ready plates in a SARS-CoV-2 nanoluc reporter virus assay (June 2023).

Southern Research holds four significant single-award indefinite delivery contracts with NIAID totaling $332.89 billion in combined ceiling value. The largest, awarded September 30, 2025, is a $136.59 million IDV for Evaluation and Testing Services for Vaccines and Other Biologics for Infectious Diseases running through September 2035. A $50 million IDV awarded September 15, 2025, funds Interventional Agents Safety and Pharmacokinetic Services under Executive Order 14398 through September 2032. A $146.3 million IDV awarded July 15, 2024, covers Pre-Clinical Models of Infectious Diseases (Part A and Part B) through July 2031. A predecessor IDV (HHSN272201400010I) generated 44 task orders worth $18.3 million in combined potential value. Southern Research also holds a $100 million single-award indefinite delivery contract with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for biological animal model and medical countermeasure development in support of BARDA, running through September 2027. The top five parent vehicles account for 164 task orders and $36 million in combined potential value; Southern Research's primary exposure sits on NIAID vehicles rather than GSA or defense GWACs.

Activity has declined since 2022, when Southern Research recorded 9 awards in the source dataset; 2024 saw 10 awards, 2023 saw 5, 2025 saw 4, and 2026 shows 2 awards to date. Within the next twenty-four months, only four awards (combined potential value $2.8 million) face ultimate completion, signaling minimal near-term recompete pressure. SCI-reported invoicing across federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold totaled $7.6 million from FY2022 through FY2025, with FY2022 peaking at $4.3 million across 10.6 FTEs, followed by declining activity through FY2025 ($577 thousand across 1.1 FTEs). Government-paid hourly rates on SCI-reportable service contracts ranged from a 10th percentile of $76.74/hr to a median of $207.33/hr and a 90th percentile of $344.89/hr, reflecting the mix of support and senior scientific labor. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed approximately 5% of total contractor hours, with two named subs reported, indicating Southern Research builds its own delivery teams rather than relying on subcontractor capacity.

Southern Research acts as a sub-recipient on federal grants, appearing in seven grant sub-awards to academic partners: Stanford University (Ultrasonic Ketamine Uncaging for Non-Opioid Therapy of Chronic Pain), the University of Alabama at Birmingham (multiple grants including the Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development Center and UAB Research Center of Excellence in Arsenicals), and the University of Tennessee (Small Molecule Enhancers of Tumor Immunity). Southern Research holds three federal grant awards as prime recipient: an NIH Office of the Director project grant (August 2023) for an automated compound management system for small molecule drug discovery; an EPA Region 4 grant (August 2023) for ambient air monitoring in underserved Birmingham communities; and a Defense Health Agency grant (July 2022) for RANK signaling inhibitors for treating breast cancer bone metastasis. Southern Research also subcontracts to Oregon Health & Science University on drug discovery work for a Chikungunya virus inhibitor. Top NAICS categories reflect the scientific base: Testing Laboratories and Services (159 awards), Research and Development in Biotechnology (80 awards), and Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (72 awards); PSC coding emphasizes Health R&D Services and Basic Research (143 awards) and Defense R&D (103 awards).