WASHINGTON - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded 25 contracts totaling up to $475 million over a decade under its third NASA Open Innovation Services (NOIS‑3) initiative, managed by Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI).
The awards enable NASA and other federal agencies to leverage public and private sector creativity through "crowd‑sourced" prize competitions, freelance tasking, technology searches, and other open‑innovation methods. NASA said NOIS‑3 "empowers NASA’s workforce by actively engaging the public to find creative solutions to difficult space exploration challenges through rapid experimentation."
Each award includes a guaranteed minimum of $500. The base contract, effective 5 June 2025, runs through 31 May 2027, with options extending operations through 31 May 2035. Awardees are:
- Blue Clarity, Vienna, Va.
- Capital Consulting Corp., Fairfax, Va.
- Challenge Works, London, United Kingdom
- CrowdPlat Inc., Pleasanton, Calif.
- Design Interactive Inc., Orlando, Fla.
- DrivenData Inc., Denver
- Ensemble Government Services, Hyattsville, Md.
- Hyperion Technologies, Arlington, Va.
- Floor23 Digital, Jackson, Wis.
- Freelancer International, Sydney, Australia
- HeroX, Wilmington, Del.
- HYVE Innovate, Munchen, Germany
- Innoget, Rockville, Md.
- Institute of Competition Sciences, San Francisco
- Loyal Source Government Services, Orlando, Fla.
- Luminary Labs, New York City
- National Institute of Aerospace Associates, Hampton, Va.
- Randstad Federal, Duluth, Ga.
- Rios Partners, Arlington, Va.
- SecondMuse, Bernalillo, N.M.
- TechConnect, Summerville, S.C.
- Toffler Associates, Arlington, Va.
- Tongal Inc., Los Angeles
- Topcoder, Indianapolis
- yet2.com Inc., Waltham, Mass.
NASA’s CoECI will guide agencies in defining challenges, establishing requirements, and evaluating submissions, providing an “end‑to‑end” open‑innovation service.
The agency says NOIS‑3 awards represent NASA’s ongoing effort to diversify research and development approaches, tapping non‑traditional sources of innovation beyond conventional government research and development channels.
