- NOAA’s ProTech is an ~$8B multiple-award IDIQ contracting vehicle spanning four domains: Oceans, Fisheries, Satellite, and Weather.
- ProTech 2.0 shifts heavily toward small-business set-asides with long ordering periods (typically 5-year base plus options) and domain-specific task scopes.
- Recent awards include 20 Weather-domain firms (2025), 21 Fisheries-domain firms (2024), and Ocean Power Technologies in the Oceans domain.
- The strategy broadens innovation and supplier participation but raises execution risks around small-business scale, recompete continuity, and cross-domain coordination.
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The NOAA ProTech program is the agency’s principal industrial platform for procuring professional, scientific, and technical services in support of its mission across oceans, fisheries, satellites, and weather. Its total procurement ceiling is approximately $8 billion, reflecting a major budgetary commitment to outsourcing a broad array of technical capabilities. The recent transition to “ProTech 2.0” contracts emphasizes small business participation, decade-long contract windows (five-year base plus option), and domain-specific specialization.
In practice, this means suppliers in the respective domains are competing for spots on the NOAA “allow-list” to receive task orders under IDIQs. For example, 20 companies are now awarded opportunities under the Weather domain; the Fisheries domain has 21 new contract holders; and organizations like Ocean Power Technologies have been selected in the Oceans domain. Certain domains also include highly technical services, such as satellites (including algorithm development, observation systems, and data management), indicating NOAA’s sustained investment in space-based and environmental modeling capabilities.
Strategic benefits include encouraging small business innovation and broadening the supplier base. However, risks may emerge: small businesses may struggle with scale or reliability during peak mission needs; longer contracts may lock in legacy approaches and limit agility; and interruptions in contract recompete periods could create capacity gaps. NOAA must manage domain-specific performance, ensure cross-domain coordination (since many services overlap, e.g., satellites feeding into forecasting models), and balance budget profiles across the four domains to avoid underfunding or overcommitting in any one area.
Open questions include how NOAA will measure and enforce service quality across domains with such diverse technical demands, how cost escalation or technology shifts (e.g., AI, uncrewed systems) will be addressed contractually in multi-year orders, and how small business primes will meet NOAA expectations for continuity and compliance.
Supporting Notes
- The ProTech program is structured into four technical domains: Oceans; Fisheries; Satellite; and Weather. It is a suite of multiple award contracts with contract types including IDIQs.
- The overall ceiling for ProTech 2.0 across all domains is approximately $8 billion.
- Noaa awarded 20 companies on September 3, 2025 under the ProTech 2.0 Weather Domain, which is a small-business set-aside with a 5-year base plus 5-year option.
- Ocean Power Technologies received a multi-year NOAA ProTech Oceans domain IDIQ contract (minimum 5 years) incorporating their PowerBuoy and WAM-V systems.
- In 2024, NOAA awarded 21 companies under ProTech 2.0 Fisheries domain, covering six major task areas including field sampling, data collection, applied research, consulting, surveys, and report generation.
- Contracting offices, domain managers, and main acquisition division leadership are publicly listed—e.g., Margaret Williams for Oceans, Elizabeth Abraham for Fisheries, Virginia Scott for Satellite, Pierre Smith for Weather.