ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001): The Complete Guide for Startups and Small Businesses
Below is a brief summary. Please check the full solicitation before applying (link in resources section).
Quick Answer
The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Broad Agency Announcement, solicitation number W912HZ26S0001, is a continuously open funding pathway that lets startups, small businesses, universities, and nonprofits propose basic and applied research across seven ERDC laboratories. It covers a wide range of technical areas including AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, high performance computing, advanced manufacturing, sensing and instrumentation, autonomous systems, materials and structures, infrastructure, environmental technologies, and geospatial technologies. There is no fixed submission deadline and no set per-award dollar ceiling. You start with a short five-page pre-proposal, and ERDC responds within 60 days on whether to invite a full proposal. Awards can take the form of a procurement contract, a grant, or a cooperative agreement.
What is the ERDC Broad Agency Announcement?
The ERDC Broad Agency Announcement is a standing solicitation issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center under the authority of FAR 35.016. A Broad Agency Announcement, or BAA, is a mechanism the government uses to solicit proposals for basic and applied research, and for that part of development not tied to a specific system or hardware procurement. In plain terms, ERDC is inviting outside organizations to bring forward research ideas that advance the state of the art or increase scientific and technical knowledge in the areas ERDC cares about.
To be eligible for award, your proposed work needs to fall into one of these categories: basic research, applied research, advanced technology development not tied to a specific system or hardware, or demonstration and validation. Work aimed at building a specific product or piece of hardware for direct government use generally does not fit the BAA and would belong on a different acquisition pathway.
This is a science and research vehicle, not a services or product procurement, and understanding that distinction is the single most important thing to get right before you invest time in a submission.
Who is the ERDC BAA for?
ERDC explicitly encourages small business participation. The solicitation specifically invites small business concerns, women-owned small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, HUBZone small businesses, firms in the SBA 8(a) program, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to submit research proposals. It also encourages proposals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions.
In practice the applicant pool skews roughly half universities and half small businesses. Some research areas lean toward earlier-stage work that naturally draws academic teams, but there is substantial room for commercial small businesses, especially those with genuine research and development depth and a technology that maps cleanly to an ERDC mission area.
Federal facilities and organizations cannot compete. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers and other government entities face direct competition limitations and must clear a high bar to be eligible, with the burden of proving eligibility resting entirely on them.
If your company is doing real R&D in a field ERDC works in, you are very likely in the intended audience.
What research areas does the ERDC BAA cover?
ERDC organizes its research interests across seven laboratories, each with its own set of numbered topic areas. When you submit, you reference the specific topic number, for example CHL-1, CRREL-10, or CERL-15.
Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) covers coastal and inland hydraulics, hydrodynamics, sediment transport, dredging, navigation channels, groundwater, hydrology, coastal structures, nature-based coastal resilience, and marine transportation technologies.
Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL) covers soil and rock mechanics, pavements, vehicle mobility, earthquake engineering, geophysics, protective and survivable structures, concrete and construction materials, projectile penetration, bridge and railroad technology, computational structural mechanics, and advanced maneuver technologies.
Environmental Laboratory (EL) covers environmental sensing, hazardous waste characterization and treatment, water quality and contaminant modeling, emerging contaminants, dredged material management, wetlands and ecological restoration, invasive and endangered species management, systems biology and bioinformatics, ecological modeling, and decision analysis.
Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) covers computational science and engineering, software engineering and informatics, high performance computing, cybersecurity, high performance data analytics, additive manufacturing enabled by HPC, artificial intelligence and machine learning for materials discovery, and edge computing.
Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) covers additive construction, critical infrastructure protection, innovative construction materials, energy efficiency and energy security, water resilience, autonomous robotic solutions for engineer operations, geopolymers, fiber reinforced polymers, structural health monitoring, and installation infrastructure management.
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) covers signature physics, terrestrial and cryospheric science, biogeochemical processes, environmental fate and transport, force projection and sustainment, cold regions infrastructure, geospatial water resources applications, and hydrology and hydraulics.
Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) covers photon-counting LIDAR, photogrammetry, intelligent spatiotemporal analytics, assured position, navigation and timing in GPS-denied environments, advanced terrain analytics, and cyber geospatial science.
Across all seven labs there are well over one hundred specific topic areas, so the practical first step is identifying which single topic your technology best fits.
How much funding can you get through the ERDC BAA?
The ERDC BAA does not publish a fixed per-award dollar ceiling. This is a meaningful difference from SBIR and STTR, which cap awards at set phase amounts. Under the BAA, the size of an award is scoped to the proposed effort and is constrained by the funding ERDC has available for that research area at the time.
There are two dollar thresholds worth knowing. First, for proposed awards exceeding $900,000, large businesses and nonprofits (including educational institutions) must submit a formal small business subcontracting plan. Small businesses are exempt from that requirement. Second, when the proposed value exceeds $100,000, an SF-LLL disclosure of lobbying activities is required.
The type of award affects fee. Procurement contracts can include a proposed fee or profit. Grants and cooperative agreements do not allow any fee or profit. Cost realism and the availability of funds are part of how proposals are evaluated, so your budget needs to be detailed, defensible, and proportionate to the work.
What is the ERDC BAA timeline and deadline?
There is no single deadline. This BAA is open on a rolling basis and remains in effect until it is superseded by a newer edition. The current edition is dated April 2026 and supersedes all previous editions. You can submit a pre-proposal at any time.
After you submit a pre-proposal, ERDC will respond within 60 days of receipt. The response either encourages you to submit a full proposal or advises you that the pre-proposal did not receive a favorable review. Pre-proposals that lack sufficient scientific merit, that are not relevant to Army needs, or that fall in areas where funds are not expected to be available may be declined.
If you are proposing support for a conference or symposium rather than research, that proposal should be submitted at least six months before the event.
The rolling nature is an advantage. You are not racing a fixed clock, and you can time your submission around your own readiness and around informal conversations with ERDC about fit.
How do you apply to the ERDC BAA?
The process has two stages: a pre-proposal first, then a full proposal by invitation only.
Before you submit anything, your organization must be registered and active in the System for Award Management at sam.gov. This is a prerequisite, and it can take time, so start it early if you are not already registered.
Stage one is the pre-proposal, which ERDC treats as a white paper. Every initial submission under this BAA is considered a pre-proposal. You submit it electronically through the ERDCWERX portal at erdcwerx.org. ERDC reviews it and, if the concept is promising, invites a full proposal.
Stage two is the full proposal, which you only prepare after receiving an invitation directly from the ERDC Contracting Office. Full proposals are submitted by email to the specific laboratory your topic falls under, using the contact and address provided in your invitation. Proposals should never be sent directly to technical or lab personnel.
What goes in an ERDC BAA pre-proposal?
The pre-proposal has a firm five-page limit, and it may only be submitted under one specific topic area. It must reference the topic number for that research area. The pre-proposal should include a descriptive title, the submitting organization's name and address including email, the principal investigator's name and phone number, the project duration, a statement of objectives or the working hypothesis, one or more paragraphs on the technical approach, one or more paragraphs on the potential military or civil payoffs to the Corps of Engineers, and a one-page curriculum vitae for the principal investigator.
Separately, you include a one-page executive summary that describes the background, scope of work, deliverables, and total proposed price. No cost breakdown is required in this summary, and the summary must not contain any sensitive or proprietary data. Importantly, this one-page executive summary does not count against the five-page limit.
If you intend to seek a grant or cooperative agreement rather than a contract, you also describe how the research supports or stimulates a public purpose.
What goes in an ERDC BAA full proposal?
A full proposal has a technical portion and a cost portion.
The technical portion covers the background and objectives, the technical approach, the proposed level of effort, and the anticipated results and deliverables. It includes a recommended Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan, biographical information and recent publications for key personnel, the names of any other agencies you have submitted the same proposal to, a description of your organization, and past performance information for at least three customers you have performed similar work for in the last three years. You also include a revised one-page executive summary. If you are pursuing a grant or cooperative agreement, you add a data management plan.
The cost portion is a detailed cost estimate broken out by element of cost and by task. It covers direct labor by discipline, fringe benefits, itemized equipment, expendable supplies, travel, subcontracts, other direct costs, and indirect cost rates and bases. Proposals should also address expected use of DoD High Performance Computing Center systems where relevant.
How are ERDC BAA proposals evaluated?
Pre-proposals get an initial technical review against three factors: the overall scientific and technical merit, the potential contribution to the ERDC mission, and available funding.
Full proposals go through scientific peer review against a broader set of criteria. Scientific and technical merit is the most important factor. The remaining factors are of equal importance to one another and, when combined, are significantly more important than cost. Those factors are the contribution to the ERDC and DoD mission, the offeror's capabilities and facilities, the qualifications of the principal investigator and key personnel, the reasonableness and realism of proposed costs along with the availability of funds, past performance, and a subcontracting plan where one is required.
A useful takeaway: this is a merit-driven, science-first evaluation, not a lowest-price competition. A strong technical concept from a credible team carries the most weight.
What types of awards can result from the ERDC BAA?
The BAA lets you propose one of three instruments, though the final instrument can change through negotiation based on the nature of the work.
A procurement contract is used when the principal purpose is to acquire research services for the direct benefit of the government. Contracts can be cost-reimbursable, which suits research where direction may shift as results come in, or fixed-price, which suits well-defined efforts with predictable costs. Contracts can include a fee.
A grant is used when the principal purpose is to transfer value to support or stimulate a public purpose, with no substantial government involvement expected and no fee or profit allowed.
A cooperative agreement is similar to a grant but anticipates substantial involvement between the government and the recipient, and it also allows no fee or profit.
How is the ERDC BAA different from SBIR and STTR?
If you have looked at SBIR or STTR, the ERDC BAA will feel both familiar and different. Both are non-dilutive federal funding, but the BAA is continuously open rather than tied to solicitation cycles, it has no phase-based dollar caps, and it is evaluated as basic and applied research rather than as a commercialization-staged program. It rewards genuine research depth and a clear tie to an ERDC mission area. For many deep-tech companies, the two pathways are complementary, and the right move is to map your technology against both.
How BW&CO helps you pursue the ERDC BAA
BW&CO works with deep-tech, defense, and dual-use founders to identify the right non-dilutive funding pathways and to build competitive submissions. For the ERDC BAA that means pinpointing the single best-fit topic area across the seven laboratories, pressure-testing whether your work reads as fundable research rather than product development, shaping the pre-proposal and executive summary, and preparing you for the full proposal stage if you are invited. If the ERDC BAA looks like a potential fit for your technology, contact BW&CO to talk through it.
FAQ SECTION WITH SCHEMA
Is the ERDC BAA open to small businesses and startups?
Yes. ERDC explicitly encourages small businesses, women-owned small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, HUBZone firms, 8(a) participants, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to submit research proposals. The applicant pool is roughly half small businesses and half universities.
Is there a deadline for the ERDC BAA?
No. The BAA is continuously open and remains in effect until superseded. The current edition is dated April 2026. You can submit a pre-proposal at any time, and ERDC responds within 60 days.
How much money can you receive through the ERDC BAA?
There is no published per-award dollar ceiling. Award size is scoped to the proposed research effort and depends on available funding. Awards above $900,000 require a subcontracting plan from large businesses and nonprofits, while small businesses are exempt.
What is the ERDC BAA solicitation number?
The solicitation number is W912HZ26S0001.
How do you apply to the ERDC BAA?
You must be registered and active in SAM at sam.gov, then submit a five-page pre-proposal electronically through erdcwerx.org under one specific topic area. If ERDC invites you, you submit a full proposal to the relevant laboratory by email.
How long can an ERDC BAA pre-proposal be?
The pre-proposal is limited to five pages under a single topic area, plus a separate one-page executive summary that does not count against the five-page limit.
What types of awards can the ERDC BAA result in?
A procurement contract, a grant, or a cooperative agreement. Grants and cooperative agreements do not allow fee or profit, while procurement contracts can include a fee.
How are ERDC BAA proposals scored?
Scientific and technical merit is the most important factor, followed by mission contribution, offeror capabilities, personnel qualifications, cost realism and fund availability, and past performance. All non-cost factors combined outweigh cost.
