The RAND Corp. wins $500M contract for R&D studies

The RAND Corp. was awarded a five-year indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract worth $500 million to provide research and development for the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center.

The HSOAC is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) that will provide subject matter expertise focused on long-term programs and areas affecting the Homeland Security Department.

The HSOAC is refocusing the existing Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) FFRDC with renewed core competencies in operational analyses.

DHS will use the IDIQ to support the HSOAC in developing ideas to fill gaps, creating state-of-the-art solutions. The RAND Corp. will help come up with games-changing improvements and innovative forward-leaning solutions to advance far-reaching issues that the department will deal with for years to come.

The task areas include:

• Acquisition planning
• Homeland security and threat studies
• Organizational studies
• Regulatory, doctrine and policy studies
• Operational studies
• R&D studies
• Innovation and technology acceleration

DHS announced the award Sept. 23. It released in the initial request for proposals in 2015.