Federal Prime Contracts

How to Identify and Compete For Relevant Federal Prime Contract Opportunities

Federal Contract Opportunity Search

The most direct way to search for contract opportunities is on the Contract Opportunity Search page, which can be found under Business Development --> Opportunities --> Contracts in the sidebar or by clicking here.

On this page, you can filter for contract opportunities by a number of criteria to narrow opportunities to those that are most relevant to your business including Agency, Set Aside, NAICS, PSC, and Place of Performance.

Additionally, there are Quick search options to rapidly narrow down contract opportunities to Active Opportunities, Future Vehicles, opportunities that have or do not have Set Asides, and by many other criteria.

As you find potentially interesting contract opportunities, you can click the opportunity title to open up the Contract Opportunity detail page to see the opportunity description, history, related solicitations, documents, similar opportunities, potential bidders, and other detail. You can also follow the opportunity by clicking the heart button to easily access it later by selecting the My Favorites filter.

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Saving Searches

On the Contract Opportunity Search page (as well as most other Search pages on HigherGov), you can press the Save button to save your search to access later. When saving a Search you can also opt-in to receive an email notification when there have been new results for the search. You can access your saved searches at any time by selecting the dropdown arrow next to the Save button or by going to Tools --> Saved Searches in the sidebar.

Daily Recommendations

You can also opt-in to receive a daily email of recommended contract opportunities by logging in and selecting the gear icon in the upper right, going to Profile, and switching on Daily Federal Opportunities Email (or clicking here). For annual subscribers, this email will be customized to the most relevant opportunities based on the contractor they work for.

Curated contract opportunities from the past 48 hours are also accessible on the Dashboard page when you log in to your account.

Agencies, Classifications, and Programs

In addition to searching for contract opportunities directly on the Contract Opportunity search page, you can also find contract opportunities on most Agency, Defense Program, NAICS, and PSC detail pages. You can further filter the opportunities shown on these pages by clicking the Explore button above each table of contract opportunities.

Potential Recompetes

Searching for Potential Recompetes

An effective way to find upcoming contract opportunities is to find relevant contracts that may recompete before they become publicly available as solicitations (if they do ever become publicly available). You can search for potential IDV and Prime Contract recompetes from the Contract search page at Market Intelligence --> Awards --> Contracts in the sidebar or by clicking here.

Here you can search for relevant potential recompetes by selecting the Potential Recompete option under Filters and then adding your own additional filters to customize your search (for example, NAICS, PSC, Agency, Set Aside, etc.). The Potential Recompete filter looks specifically for contracts that are more likely to have upcoming recompetes based on timing, size, and other criteria. Alternatively, rather than selecting the Potential Recompete Quick search, you can create your own filter to find using the Date Potential End filter.

Once you have found potential recompetes, you can open the IDV or Contract to find additional details about the type of work, incumbent, previous related Contract Opportunities, and the people involved in creating or approving the contract.

8(a) Graduations

If you participate in the 8(a) program, an additional way to find recompetes is to search for contracts currently held by 8(a) program members who will soon be graduating and thus are more likely to be awarded to a new contractor upon recompete. You can filter for these contracts on the Contracts search page by selecting the 8(a) Expiring Quick filter. You can combine this filter with the Potential Recompete filter and other relevant additional filters to narrow down to the potential recompetes most relevant to you.

Set Aside Graduations

You can also search for potential recompetes for competitors or other awardees that you know have exceeded their SBA NAICS thresholds by filtering by Awardee on the Contracts search page and combing this filter with the Potential Recompete filter or other relevant filters.