Ut-Battelle LLC

Ut-Battelle LLC, doing business as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) that operates as a prime recipient on federal research grants and as a subcontractor on Department of Energy and Department of Defense management-and-operating contracts, with total combined potential value across 159 awards of $43.82 billion. Ut-Battelle is a not-for-profit limited liability partnership structured as a federal contractor entity; it holds no SBA set-aside certifications and competes full-and-open across its prime grant footprint and under prime M&O subcontracts.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's customer base is dominated by the Department of Energy, which anchors the award portfolio. By potential value, the Department of Energy Office of Science alone carries $43.82 billion across three awards—a concentration reflecting ORNL's role as a major national laboratory. By award count, the top five customers account for 43% of awards: the Department of the Air Force Air Education and Training Command (29 awards), the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (13 awards), the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (11 awards), the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (9 awards), and the NIH National Cancer Institute (6 awards, $103 thousand combined potential value). This distribution reflects ORNL's dual mission in energy science and biomedical research.

ORNL's prime work centers on federally funded research grant awards from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy. Recent prime research grants include a $855 thousand NIH Office of the Director Trans-NIH Research Support award (CFDA 93.310) issued September 1, 2026, for development of structurally expanded bifunctional chelators for targeted radiopharmaceuticals in cancer diagnosis and treatment; a National Institute of General Medical Sciences grant for single-cell mass spectrometry for metabolic profiling, running through July 31, 2025; and another NIGMS grant for quantitative single-cell mass spectrometry with unprecedented sensitivity, completing April 30, 2025. ORNL also holds a small prime contract award for material procurement (ytterbium 171, $6,807, awarded January 27, 2022, to the Army Research Development and Engineering Command).

ORNL's subcontract footprint splits between two dominant prime contractors: Triad National Security, LLC (management and operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory) and Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC (management and operation of Y-12 National Security Complex and Pantex Plant). Across Triad and Consolidated Nuclear Security subcontracts, ORNL provides isotopes and isotope center services, IT professional services, software, analytical services, materials supply, and professional services supporting nuclear weapons complex operations and scientific facilities. These subcontracts represent incremental funding and stand-alone item-level awards issued repeatedly throughout 2024, 2025, and 2026, reflecting ongoing M&O contract activity. ORNL also subcontracts to Cusatis Computational Services on a Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research Phase II award for multi-scale wood behavior prediction.

ORNL's federal grant sub-recipient work spans a broad university and research institution base including Research Triangle Institute, Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, Cornell University, Michigan Technological University, University of Tennessee, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin, West Virginia University, Yale University, Georgia Tech, and others. Sub-recipient work includes high-performance computing analytics and data modeling for disease epidemiology and environmental health (Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania); catalysis and emissions control research for vehicle technologies (Michigan Tech, University of Wisconsin); EV charging infrastructure optimization for rural Appalachia (Tennessee Tech, University of Tennessee); network-based analysis of complex biological systems using ORNL-developed X-AI and iterative random forest algorithms (Cornell, Yale); and carbon-neutral synthesis and direct air capture research. ORNL contributes unique high-performance computing infrastructure, advanced catalysis testing capabilities, and expertise in machine-learning-based network analysis across these collaborations.

Activity has accelerated sharply in the source year range, with 50 awards in 2024 compared to 7 in 2022 and 5 in 2023. This growth is driven primarily by the Energy Office of Science relationship and by increased sub-recipient and subcontract activity tied to DOE and DoD national laboratory M&O funding. ORNL's Service Contract Inventory footprint is minimal—only 0.6 FTEs reported in FY2022 as a named subcontractor on a service contract above the $150 thousand threshold—indicating that ORNL's federal revenue derives overwhelmingly from research grants, FFRDC support, and M&O subcontract task orders rather than from competitive service contracts under vehicles such as GWACs or BPAs.

The categorization of ORNL's work by NAICS reflects its mission scope: Facilities Support Services dominates with 44 awards, followed by Research and Development in Biotechnology (6 awards), Miscellaneous Chemical Product Manufacturing (5 awards), and Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (4 awards). By product and service code, work spans Chemicals (14 awards), Laboratory Equipment and Supplies (9 awards), and Miscellaneous Chemical Specialties (6 awards), consistent with ORNL's role as a multidisciplinary research facility serving federal scientific and national security priorities. Performance takes place primarily at ORNL's main facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.