Federal Agencies / Federal agency guide
National Science Foundation: $711M in contracts in FY2025
NSF funds research mostly through grants; its contracts run the U.S. Antarctic Program, the large research facilities it owns, and the IT that handles its merit-review system. The contracts are few and large, and the subcontracts beneath them reach into logistics, construction and specialized engineering.
Its mission, in its own words
To promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense; and for other purposes.
As recorded on USAspending.gov; 1 sub-agencies and bureaus buy under it. www.nsf.gov
- Small-business set-asides
- $76.5M
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 contract obligations under a small-business set-aside, read 2026-11-05.
- Set-aside share
- 10.8%
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 set-aside obligations over all contract obligations, read 2026-11-05.
What NSF buys, by code
The NAICS codes with the most NSF contract dollars in FY2025: together $696M, 97.8% of everything it obligated. Each code links to its own page with the buyers under it across government.
| NAICS code | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $364M | 51.1% | |
| $103M | 14.5% | |
| $60.4M | 8.5% | |
| $55.2M | 7.8% | |
| $47.6M | 6.7% | |
| $17.5M | 2.5% | |
| $16.4M | 2.3% | |
| $12.8M | 1.8% | |
| $5.9M | 0.8% | |
| $3M | 0.4% | |
| $2.8M | 0.4% | |
| $2.4M | 0.3% | |
| $1.9M | 0.3% | |
| $1.7M | 0.2% | |
| $1.7M | 0.2% |
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 contract obligations by NAICS code, read 2026-11-05.
The small-business share
$76,536,950 of NSF’s FY2025 contract dollars, 10.8% of the total, went out under a small-business set-aside: competitions and sole-source awards reserved for small firms, 8(a) participants, HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned and women-owned businesses. The dollars primes placed with small subcontractors sit on top of that and are not counted here.
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 set-aside obligations, read 2026-11-05.
The vehicles
Antarctic Support Contract
The logistics, construction and operations of the U.S. Antarctic Program.
Large facility contracts
The operation of observatories, research vessels and other facilities.
OASIS+ and NITAAC
Professional services and IT.
What GovSmith does with this
How GovSmith wins at NSF for you
GovSmith tracks the facility operators' subcontracts and the SBIR topics NSF runs for deep-technology startups, and the vCM pairs a client's research or engineering strength with the program that funds it.