How Do I Find Contract Solicitations?
The primary method to find contract solicitations is the federal-wide System for Award Management website (SAM.gov), which lists federal contracting opportunities higher than $20,000.
What is a Contract?
A contract is a legal agreement that has defined requirements, specific deliverables, and a defined schedule.
How is a Contract Different From a Grant?
| Grants | Contracts |
| Assistance mechanism to support research for the public good | Legally binding agreement to acquire goods or services for the direct use or benefit of the government |
| Peer review of broad criteria | Evaluation based on stated evaluation factors |
| Limited government oversight and control | More government oversight and control |
| Reports | Reports and Deliverables |
How Do I Use SAM.gov to Find Contract Opportunities?
The SAM.gov Contract Opportunities webpage enables users to search for opportunities by keyword, federal agency, notice type, and other filters. To find NIH contracting opportunities, try searching by Federal Organizations and typing “NIH” into the search box (code 7529). Also, try searching for contracting opportunities across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by entering the code 7570 for the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration.
You can limit results to research and development (R&D) opportunities by entering “5417” for the NAICS code. Access additional search fields by clicking “Contracting” and then “Contracting Opportunities” in the menu to the right of the search box.
To demonstrate, try these preformatted search examples:
- Find all contract opportunities at NIH
- Find all contract opportunities supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHBLI; use "NHLBI" as search term)
- Find extramural R&D contract opportunities supported by NHLBI
- Find extramural R&D solicitations, presolicitations, and sources sought at NIH
- Find extramural R&D solicitations only at NIH
- Find R&D contract opportunities on substance use at NIH
You can sign up for a SAM.gov user account to save searches, follow changes to saved opportunities, and join interested vendor lists. After you have saved a search, you can receive email notifications for updates to the opportunity by selecting “Notify” under Actions in your list of saved searches. See FAQs about SAM.gov contract opportunities on the Federal Service Desk website (FSD.gov), including detailed answers on how to follow items on SAM.gov, use the SAM.gov search feature, and search for contract opportunities.
Additional Tips:
- Review the solicitation carefully; it should include all the information needed to prepare the proposal.
- Contact NIH staff listed on the solicitation with questions.
Learn more about submitting NIH contract proposals and how proposals are evaluated on the Grants & Funding Contracts webpage.