Federal contractor · EAST LIBERTY, OH

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER INC

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER INC received $25.2M in federal contract obligations in FY2026, on 54 awards (+15% vs FY2025). Since FY2017: $212.2M. Its largest customer was National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ($25.2M). It also received $1.5M in federal grants and other assistance in FY2026.

Obligations · FY2026: $25.2M
New awards: 54
Sole-source: 88%
Single offer: 0.0%

UEI: VM3RJUJSN3A4

Other than small businessNonprofit

Open in the contracts explorer Relationship graph

Spending by fiscal year

Obligations per federal fiscal year (October–September).

16.1MFY2017
13.2MFY2018
16.3MFY2019
17.3MFY2020
19.4MFY2021
18.3MFY2022
33.4MFY2023
31MFY2024
22MFY2025
25.2MFY2026

Top buying agencies

Obligations in FY2026.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration$25.2M100%
54 awards

What was bought · Where the work was performed

Obligations in FY2026.

What was bought

Research & development$24.3M96%
Professional services$923K3.7%

Where the work was performed

Logan County, OH$18.8M74%
District of Columbia, DC$6.5M26%

Integrity signals

Shares of the year's obligations, next to the country's.

Low competition88%
US 39% · $22.2M
Sole-source awards88%
US 30% · $22.2M
Single-offer competitions0.0%
US 8.7% · $0
Urgency justifications0.0%
US 5.1% · $0

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Agencies awarding it sole-source contracts

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration$22.2M
Department of Transportation · 7 awards

Largest awards

NEW TO AGAINST TRC IDIQ CONTRACT: 693JJ923D000057 BIOMECHANICS RESEARCH$13.9M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Sep 5, 2024 – Aug 27, 2026· 693JJ924F00107N
**VRTC** NEW TRC TO AGAINST NEW TRC CONTRACT (TBD). SEVERABLE. POP: 5-YEAR ( BASE PERIOD WITH FOUR 1 YEAR OPTIONS.) BASE PERIOD 09/30/2023 - 09/29/2024 HISTORICALLY, INDIVIDUAL TRC TASK ORDERS WERE UTILIZED TO MEET INDIVIDUAL PROJECT GOALS. D$12.7M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Sep 28, 2023 – Jul 21, 2026· 693JJ923F000296
NEW TRC TO AGAINST CONTRACT: 693JJ923D000057 DUMMY MANAGEMENT LABORATORY SUPPORT SERVICES$10.8M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Aug 1, 2024 – Sep 29, 2026· 693JJ924F00064N
ADMINISTRATIVE LABORATORY SUPPORT SERVICES$4.7M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Jun 5, 2024 – May 29, 2026· 693JJ924F00053N
HUMAN FACTORS RESEARCH - RESEARCH, TESTING, AND TEST PROCEDURE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT FOR THE TOPICS OF CRASH AVOIDANCE WARNING SYSTEM HUMAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (HMI)$4.5M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Sep 28, 2023 – Sep 23, 2026· 693JJ923F000295
ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE - SYSTEM EQUIPMENT SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT$4M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· May 4, 2023 – Mar 27, 2026· 693JJ923F000157
NEW TO AGAINST TRC CONTRACT: 693JJ923D000057 DEFECTS ANALYSIS SUPPORT$2.9M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Aug 30, 2024 – Aug 27, 2026· 693JJ924F00129N
EXERCISING AUTOMATED DRIVING SYSTEMS (ADS) TESTING FRAMEWORKS FOR APPLIED RESEARCH$2.8M
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration· Logan County, OH· Research & development· Mar 25, 2021 – Mar 27, 2026· 693JJ921F000036

Federal grants & assistance received

Grants, loans (counted at their subsidy cost), direct payments and insurance, by fiscal year of the action (USAspending.gov, FABS). Reported apart from contracts and never added to them.

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER INC received $1.5M in federal assistance in FY2026, on 1 actions (1 new awards). Its largest program was 11.617 · Congressionally-Identified Projects ($1.5M).

Assistance · FY2026: $1.5M
New awards: 1
Actions: 1

Assistance by fiscal year

1.5MFY2026

By type

Grants$1.5M100%

Top programs

11.617 · Congressionally-Identified Projects$1.5M100%

Awarding agencies

National Institute of Standards and Technology$1.5M100%
Department of Commerce

Largest awards

PURPOSE:THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO ACQUIRE, INSTALL, AND COMMISSION A HYDROPULS CRASH SIMULATION SYSTEM (SLED) FROM INSTRON GMBH TO…$1.5M
11.617 · Congressionally-Identified Projects· National Institute of Standards and Technology· Project grant· Sep 21, 2026 – Sep 21, 2026· 60NANB26D038

Source: Federal financial assistance transactions (Financial Assistance Broker Submission) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 8, 2026, loaded Oct 8, 2026 · FY2026.

Subawards

Matched by Unique Entity ID: the first-tier subawards this organization reported as a prime recipient, and those primes reported paying it.

As a prime: who it pays · FY2026

Sub-contracts: $3M (8 subawards)

2 sub-recipients

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE$2.9M95%
COLUMBUS, OH · 6 subawards
PROGRESS ANALYTICS LLC$151K5.0%
BLACKSBURG, VA · 2 subawards

As a sub-recipient: who pays it · FY2026

No subawards reported to it in FY2026.

Its reported sub-contracts equal 12% of its FY2026 contract obligations.

By fiscal year

FY2021: $1.4M paid out · $214.2K received
FY2022: $2.1M paid out · $1.4M received
FY2023: $393.8K paid out · $0 received
FY2024: $2.7M paid out · $0 received
FY2025: $2.8M paid out · $0 received
FY2026: $3M paid out · $0 received

Primes report first-tier subawards of $30,000 or more themselves, and many go unreported (GAO-24-106214). Reporting moved from FSRS to SAM.gov in March 2025 and fewer sub-contracts have been reported since. Amounts are what primes reported; they are never added to prime award totals.

Source: Subawards (first-tier sub-contracts and sub-grants reported under FFATA) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov (reports filed in SAM.gov, formerly FSRS)), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026 · Subawards loaded from FY2021.

Teaming partners

Companies this company reported paying, primes that reported paying it, from FFATA subaward reports.

Companies it pays

15 companies · $12.4M reported

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE$9.7M
COLUMBUS, OH · 46 subawards · Architectural, engineering, and related services
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA$409.9K
LOS ANGELES, CA · 1 subaward · Architectural, engineering, and related services
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN$399.1K
ANN ARBOR, MI · 2 subawards · Architectural, engineering, and related services

Primes that pay it

2 companies · $1.7M reported

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE$1.1M
COLUMBUS, OH · 1 subaward
BATTELLE ENERGY ALLIANCE, LLC$527.1K
IDAHO FALLS, ID · 2 subawards · Scientific research and development services

Showing the top 3 of each list. Open the profile for potential partners and the full lists.

Competitors

Companies that win from the same buyers in the same markets: obligations by agency and industry compared over the last three fiscal years.

Compared on 2 markets (agency × industry), FY2024–FY2026.

VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE & STATE UNIVERSITY$86.4M−24% in FY2026
BLACKSBURG, VA · 2 entities · 17% of this company's obligations are in markets they both serveNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Architectural, engineering, and related servicesFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration · Scientific research and development services
4S - SILVERSWORD SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, LLC$22.9M−39% in FY2026
CATONSVILLE, MD · 9.4% of this company's obligations are in markets they both serveNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Architectural, engineering, and related services
APPLUS IDIADA KARCO ENGINEERING, LLC$5.8M−0.6% in FY2026
ADELANTO, CA · 7.4% of this company's obligations are in markets they both serveNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Architectural, engineering, and related services

Showing the top 3 of 25 competitors. Open the profile for the full list.

Who sells to the same buyers in the same markets, not who wins against whom on a given contract. Prime contract obligations by the agency and NAICS code of each award; subawards are never added. A company is a family of legal entities, joined by parent UEI or, in part, by an AI reading of names.

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026 · FY2024–FY2026.

Lobbying and PAC activity

Organizations in House lobbying disclosures and FEC records whose names an AI judgment matched to this company. Those records carry no identifier shared with contracts, so every match is by name.

Matched organizations

Transportation Research CenterAI match · 99%

Lobbying · 2025: $110K; 4 reports
Lobbying · 2023–2026: $330K

Lobbying by year

2023$80K
8 reports
2024$80K
8 reports
2025$110K
4 reports
2026$60K
2 reports

Top issues

Transportation14 reports
Budget and appropriations6 reports
Trade (domestic and foreign)3 reports

Who was contacted

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES14 reports
U.S. SENATE14 reports
Transportation - Dept of (DOT)4 reports
Executive Office of the President (EOP)2 reports
White House Office1 reports

Houses of Congress and federal agencies the reports list as contacted (a report names every one for all its issues).

Lobbying firms hired

KLEIN/JOHNSON GROUP$170K
6 reports
Ann Aquillo Consulting LLC$160K
8 reports
Siekman and Siekman LLC$0
8 reports

Registrants who are individuals are counted, not named.

Lobbying amounts are the filers' own good-faith estimates on quarterly LD-2 reports (the law asks for amounts rounded to $10,000; under $5,000 need not be itemized), latest amendment only. When an organization files its own report, it replaces what outside firms report for it that quarter. Matches are by name. Lobbying and political giving are legal and public: they show engagement with government, not influence over any award. Correlation is not influence: these organizations' lobbying and their contracts are shown side by side, and nothing here implies either affected the other.

Source: Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026 · 2023–2026.

Source: Committees, candidates and committee contributions to candidates (Federal Election Commission), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026 · 2026, 2024, 2022.

Matches: Analisa AI name judgments (entity-match@1), updated Sep 30, 2026.

Congress: members and bills

Through the organizations matched to this company: members of Congress whose campaigns received contributions from their PACs, and the bills their lobbying reports named. Shown beside the company's contracts as a comparison, not a cause.

Bills named in its lobbying reports

H.R. 8870 · BUILD America 250 Act1 report
119th Congress · Introduced · 2026

1 of 22 reports (2023–2026) name at least one bill. Bills and resolutions the current reports name in their issue descriptions, by number of reports. A report names what it lobbied on, not which side it took.

Amounts, members and bills are as recorded, shown side by side. They say nothing about why a contribution was made, how a member voted or what a report sought. A bill number written in a report is read as the measure of the Congress its context points to (a law's number, the Congress written next to it, the title), else of the Congress then sitting.

Source: Committees, candidates and committee contributions to candidates (Federal Election Commission), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026.

Source: Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026.

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026.