The Rand Corporation

The Rand Corporation, a tax-exempt nonprofit global policy think tank headquartered in Santa Monica, California, serves as a prime contractor delivering evidence-based research, policy analysis, and strategic consulting services to federal agencies across defense, national security, healthcare, and civilian policy domains. Rand operates predominantly as a full-and-open prime contractor (93% of recent awards) with no SBA set-aside posture, competing on unrestricted vehicles rather than through set-aside categories.

Rand's customer concentration is heavily weighted toward defense and health agencies. The top five funding customers account for 78% of combined potential value: the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (103 awards, $8.55 billion), the Office of the Secretary of Defense (139 awards, $1.73 billion), the Department of the Air Force Headquarters District Washington (157 awards, $1.33 billion), the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (106 awards, $1.09 billion), and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration (62 awards, $586.3 million). By award count, the Air Force and NIH dominate, but CMS's multi-billion-dollar healthcare evaluation contracts anchor the dollar footprint. Award volume has remained steady at 100–170 awards annually over the past five years, with 99 awards (combined potential value $529.8 million) reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing a moderate recompete exposure window.

Rand holds prime positions on multiple large government-wide IDVs. The Indefinite Delivery Contract HSHQDC16D00007 (the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center FFRDC IDIQ) carries 183 task orders valued at $292.8 million. The OASIS+ Unrestricted Multiple Award Contract, administered by GSA with a multi-billion-dollar ceiling through December 2029, channels delivery orders from the Air Force, Office of the Secretary of Defense, CMS, Coast Guard, and DHS. The Multiple Award Schedule carries 169 task orders valued at $441.9 million. The Evidence-Based Practice Centers VII program from AHRQ (90 million ceiling through June 2030) and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network operations contract (29.19 million through September 2026) round out the major vehicle portfolio. These vehicles enable rapid task-order issuance across federal agencies without individual competitive solicitations.

Rand's research capability footprint centers on health policy evaluation, defense strategy and force-structure analysis, national security research, and program assessment. Representative prime work includes a $32.976 billion delivery order for Project Air Force FY26 core research projects (72 staff-years of technical effort, cost-no-fee); a $25.26 million Office of the Secretary of Defense delivery order for RAND National Defense Research Institute research and development services (cost-plus-fixed-fee); a $14.999 million CMS delivery order to conduct an independent evaluation of the Accountable Care Organization Primary Care Flex model under the RMADA 2 IDIQ (cost-plus-fixed-fee); and a $39.4 million OSD delivery order for research and development services on defense contractor financial and business intelligence analysis (cost-plus-fixed-fee, with named subs including Davis Research LLC, Ipsos Public Affairs, and Omelas Inc.). Rand also received a $38.1 million Army delivery order for RAND FY25 core studies through the Arroyo FFRDC and active grant awards from the National Institutes of Health ($769 thousand for school-based health center impacts on children with disabilities), the National Institute on Aging ($1.366 million for Medicare opioid use disorder medication access), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse ($408.679 thousand for adaptive interventions in opioid use disorder and PTSD co-occurrence).

SCI-reported invoicing reflects a subset of Rand's federal services activity. The organization reported $460.5 million in SCI-reportable invoiced revenue across FY2022–FY2024, with $127.5 million (FY2022, 977 FTEs), $161 million (FY2023, 996 FTEs), and $172 million (FY2024, 340 FTEs). On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates ran around $254.84/hr, with rates ranging from $186.56/hr (10th percentile) to $353.21/hr (90th percentile), reflecting a mix of entry-level research support staff, policy researchers, and senior principal researchers. On its GSA Schedule, Rand offers 62 labor categories spanning from Interviewer ($72.64/hr, high school education) through Senior Principal Researcher ($503.51/hr, PhD with 20 years' experience), with no security-clearance requirements across the portfolio.

Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, Rand builds its own delivery teams: subcontractors accounted for an average 3% of contractor hours, with 49 named subcontractors appearing across the prime footprint. In its limited subcontractor role (7% of recent awards), Rand performs policy research, evaluation, data analysis, and qualitative research support as a sub to larger primes including American Institutes for Research, MDRC, The MITRE Corporation, and Specpro Sustainment and Environmental. Named sub-award work includes contribution to the Regional Educational Laboratory Program (REL Southwest) and the Systematically Testing the Evidence of Marijuana (STEM) project.

Federal grant activity spans health-focused agencies. Rand acts as prime recipient on awards from the National Institutes of Health (research on school-based health centers, health insurance and gig work, comparative analyses of health policy impacts), the National Institute on Aging (Medicare opioid use disorder medication access, family-based macro-simulation models for Alzheimer's disease care supply and demand), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (opioid use disorder treatment cascades, adaptive interventions for OUD and PTSD co-occurrence, substance use and social isolation trajectories), the National Institute of Mental Health (mental health emergency response system capacity mapping, diagnostic variance reduction, telehealth policy impacts on perinatal behavioral health), and the National Science Foundation (AI infrastructure for poverty and social policy research, risk perception decision-making during hurricanes, collaborative research on cyber and terrorism insurance). Rand also partners as sub-recipient on grant-funded research with institutions including Brown University, University of Washington, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and Emory University, contributing subject matter expertise in healthcare data analysis, implementation science, qualitative research methods, and policy evaluation.

Place of performance is primarily Santa Monica, California, with subordinate operations in Washington, D.C., Washington, Virginia, and at regional sites for specific projects. A subsidiary, RAND Europe Community Interest Company, extends research capacity internationally. Activity volume averaged 108–166 awards annually from 2022–2025, with recent awards clustered around the Air Force, OSD, CMS, and DHS research priorities. The organization operates on cost-no-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and time-and-materials pricing structures depending on contract type and customer agency requirements.