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Federal Contracting · Fonteum Data GlossaryRegulatory

What is a prime award?

A prime award is a federal award made directly by a federal agency to a recipient, rather than a subcontract or lower-tier transaction. Fonteum uses USASpending.gov prime-award data to summarize contractor recipients, agency obligations, NAICS activity, set-aside context, and dated award facts.

Source file
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Published
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Retrieved
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Snapshot
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Data as of
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Short explanation

Prime awards are central to federal procurement transparency because they identify the direct relationship between a federal awarding agency and the recipient recorded on the award. Fonteum's procurement surfaces use prime-award records from USASpending.gov so contractor and agency pages can state dated award facts without inferring subcontract relationships that are outside the source row. Prime-award evidence is read with UEI, agency, amount, date, NAICS, and set-aside fields where present.

Related platform: Source library

Last updated: 2026-07-11Reviewed by: Fonteum data standards desk — Source-provenance editorial review. Definitions checked against primary federal sources.

How it’s used

  • Recipient profiles: prime awards help summarize the awards on file for an entity keyed by UEI.
  • Agency and industry views: prime-award transactions power top-contractor, agency, and NAICS procurement pages as the backfill grows.
  • Scope discipline: Fonteum does not treat a prime award as a subcontract record or as a present-tense eligibility statement.

Frequently asked questions

Is a prime award the same as a subcontract?
No. A prime award is made directly by a federal agency to the recipient recorded on the award.
Why does Fonteum focus on prime awards?
Prime awards are the direct public award records available from USASpending.gov and can be joined to UEI, agency, date, amount, and NAICS fields.
Can a prime award include set-aside information?
Yes. Procurement award records can include set-aside or competition fields when those values are reported by the source.

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What’s on file, by the numbers

Platform snapshot · 2026-08-30

13.4Mproviders & companiesProviders, organizations, owners, and facilities on file
26.2Msource-linked factsSource-linked field facts in the dated platform snapshot
90sources with dataDistinct snapshot source IDs with at least one positive record count
16fresh sourcesDistinct source IDs whose latest positive-data snapshot falls within the preceding 45 days
111sources integratedActive registry rows; integration does not establish a load
13state Medicaid jurisdictionsDistinct states represented in the state-exclusions serving table

Integrated, with-data, and fresh-observation counts are separate. No platform-wide source-completeness count is published. Completeness is source-specific and must be evaluated against the named source's expected scope. State coverage is a separate jurisdiction measure.

Source authority is record-specific

Use the issuer named on the record.

Fonteum spans federal, state, and global public publishers. A source page or returned record identifies its issuer and dataset where that metadata is available. A platform registry count does not assign every page to one authority or establish loaded, fresh, or complete coverage.

Browse source records and their stated limitations →

Reproducible by design

Inspect the evidence each published figure actually supplies.

Source and date

Research pages expose the named public file and observation date where those fields are available. Source-file SHA-256 coverage is separate; facts do not currently link deterministically to signatures.

Available derivation

Studies with a retained release and committed derivation link the SQL or method used. Other studies state the evidence and reproduction limits they actually have.

Daily observations

Dated table row-count observations can detect local drift. They do not imply that an upstream publisher released or Fonteum ingested new data that day.

Named medical review

Reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD, medical reviewer. Non-practicing medical reviewer.

Read the full provenance and attestation methodology →

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