The New England College Of Optometry

The New England College of Optometry, a private non-profit educational institution based in Boston, Massachusetts, operates as a prime contractor and grant recipient providing optometry education and vision science research services to the Department of the Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of the Army, and the National Institutes of Health. The college competes in full-and-open procurement without set-aside designations across its federal work, and holds 98% of its awards as a prime rather than a subcontractor.

The college's primary federal revenue stream is tuition and fees for military optometry training. The Department of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery accounts for 45 awards with $1.3 million in combined potential value, representing roughly two-thirds of the award count across the top five customer agencies. Since January 2022, the college has secured delivery order contracts from the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery on a roughly semi-annual cycle, each in the range of $12,000 to $63,000, all for tuition and fees supporting Navy and Marine Corps medical professionals pursuing optometric education at the Boston campus. Representative recent contracts include a $52,324 delivery order awarded January 30, 2026, and a $61,840.50 delivery order awarded August 1, 2025. The college also holds multiple Navy IDIQs and basic ordering agreements: an Indefinite Delivery Contract N0018908GZ093 (22 task orders, $695 thousand combined potential value) and a Basic Ordering Agreement N0018918GZ011 (13 task orders, $467 thousand combined potential value) anchor the largest vehicle positions. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Army each account for 16 awards, though the Potential value concentration is lower than award count, suggesting smaller transaction sizes or research grants.

The college's grant footprint centers on vision science research through the National Eye Institute. Recent grants include a $372 thousand Project Grant (CFDA 93.867, Vision Research program) awarded June 1, 2026, testing a novel emmetropization mechanism model to understand myopia development in children; a Project Grant from the National Eye Institute awarded September 30, 2024, investigating lens refractive index effects on axial length measurement for accommodation and cataract surgery; and a $216,355 Supplemental Assistance to Institutions of Higher Education (SAIHE) grant (CFDA 84.425S, Education Stabilization Fund) from the Office of Postsecondary Education awarded July 31, 2021, for COVID-19 pandemic response. The college also acts as a sub-recipient on grants from Northeastern University, The Ohio State University, and UCLA, performing participant recruitment, protocol development, equipment ordering, and low-vision rehabilitation research support roles.

Activity has accelerated since 2023 — two awards in both 2022 and 2023, rising to seven in 2024 and declining to three in 2025 and four in 2026 so far. Only two awards are scheduled for ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, limiting near-term recompete exposure. The college's NAICS profile reflects its educational and optometry-practice mission: the top categories are Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (31 awards), Administration of Education Programs (23 awards), and Offices of Optometrists (16 awards). The PSC profile mirrors this concentration, with Education/Training—Tuition/Registration/Membership Fees dominating 64 awards, Medical—Optometry at 25 awards, and Medical—Other at 8 awards.