Research and Studies Government Tenders in United States

Commissioned studies, methodology scoring and the right to publish

A commissioned study is bought for a decision the buyer has to make, and the tender usually states the decision. That matters because the strongest bids answer the decision rather than the question as written: they say what the study can and cannot establish, what the sample will support, and where the evidence will remain thin. Evaluation in this category is weighted heavily toward methodology, and a proposal that claims certainty the method cannot deliver is scored down by any competent panel.

The practical constraints are access and ethics. Studies that involve interviews, survey respondents or administrative data need approvals before fieldwork begins, and the timetable for those approvals is frequently longer than the fieldwork itself. Data protection obligations govern how personal data is collected, stored, anonymised and destroyed, and the contract normally names the roles of each party in handling it. A bid whose programme starts fieldwork immediately after award has usually not accounted for this.

Ownership and publication are negotiated terms with real consequences. Public buyers commonly take ownership of the report and the underlying data, reserve the right to publish, and require the raw data and code in a reusable form so the analysis can be reproduced. Researchers often want the right to publish independently, and the compromise is usually a delay period rather than a veto. Bidders should also read the clause on findings the buyer dislikes: the credible contracts protect the researcher's conclusions explicitly, and the absence of that protection tells you something about the commission.

This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.

Who buys research and studies in United States?

GlobalGov holds 1,077 research and studies records from 347 distinct buying organisations in United States. The most frequent publishers are National Institutes Of Health (214 records); U.s. National Science Foundation (91 records); Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity - Dhaca (36 records); Department of Defense (32 records); Office of Acquisiton Grants (16 records); Ofc of Acquisition Grants-Denver (14 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 37% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.

What are research and studies contracts worth in United States?

212 of the 1,077 records publish a contract value. The median is $7.6M and the largest single published value is $1.1B. By size, 25 under $100k, 28 between $100k and $1M, 58 between $1M and $10M, 101 above $10M. The remaining 865 publish no value at all, so every figure here describes the priced subset only, and values are as stated by the buyer rather than as finally awarded.

How long do bidders get to respond to research and studies tenders in United States?

Across the 665 United States research and studies notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 16 days. A quarter of them allowed 10 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 55. 233 of them (35%) closed within a fortnight of being published, so on this market a bidder who reviews notices once a week can lose most of the response window before reading one.

How often are research and studies tenders published in United States?

United States publishes about 61 notices a month in this category, 737 in the last twelve months. That is 334% more than the 170 published in the twelve months before that. Over the last three years there were 980, spread across 62 separate months of activity since 10 August 2011. April is historically the busiest month. The most recent was published 30 September 2026.

How does United States compare with other research and studies markets?

Among the 25 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable research and studies market, United States ranks 2nd by number of records. The largest is France (1,079 records against 1,077 here). Within United States itself, research and studies is the 30th largest of the 85 procurement categories tracked here.

Where do the United States research and studies records on this page come from?

These 1,077 records are collected from 5 official sources: SAM.gov (562), Grants.gov (279), Simpler.Grants.gov (179), USAspending (56) and 1 smaller source. GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.

Most recent Research and Studies tenders in United States

None of these are open for bids now — they are the most recent records GlobalGov holds for this market, kept here so the shape of a typical research and studies notice in United States is visible. Set an alert to be told when the next one opens.

Other procurement categories in United States

Research and Studies procurement in other markets