DOD makes first awards on $28B tech research contract vehicle

Three nonprofit organizations have won the right to compete for task orders under one track of a potential nine-year, $28 billion Defense Department contract vehicle for technology research-and-development services.

Battelle, MRIGlobal and Southwest Research Institute will compete for work under Pool 3 of the Information Analysis Center Multiple-Award Contract also known as IAC-MAC. The Defense Department said in its Friday contracts digest these organizations will vie for laboratory work in the field of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense.

These represent the first awards for the consolidated IAC-MAC contract that bundles research services performed under 40 contracts in three predecessor vehicles. DOD posted the final solicitation for IAC-MAC bids in October and has divided the awards into three pools, including the CBRN piece.

DOD is eyeing 15 awards for a full-and-open portion and 10 for small businesses only. The CBRN piece was an unrestricted competition.

Other task areas for IAC-MAC include cybersecurity, weapon systems, autonomous systems, critical infrastructure, biometrics and medical-related services.