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  1. Fonteum
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  3. Glossary
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  5. Prime Award
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.

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.

Related terms

  • USASpending.gov
  • Federal Award
  • FPDS
  • UEI
  • NAICS Code
  • Federal Set-Aside

Explore in Fonteum

How Fonteum sources, resolves, and publishes data tied to this term.

  • PlatformSource library
  • Use caseGovernment procurement evidence hub
  • StudyTop federal contractors

Authoritative sources

  • USASpending.gov: award search↗
  • USASpending.gov award data archive↗
  • Federal Procurement Data System↗
← All glossary terms

What’s on file, by the numbers

Platform snapshot · 2026-07-15

13.4Mproviders & companiesProviders, organizations, owners, and facilities on file
26.2Msource-linked factsSource-linked field facts in the dated platform snapshot
—sources liveCrosswalk-resolved sources with a proved content transition in 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

Built on the authoritative federal record

The primary sources, named on every page.

These are the federal agencies whose public datasets Fonteum ingests and attributes — the issuing authorities, not customers or partners. Every figure on the site links back to one of them.

  • CMS
  • HHS-OIG
  • HRSA
  • FDA
  • NLM
  • NUCC
  • Census
  • BLS
  • BEA

See the full source registry, with license and refresh cadence for each →

Reproducible by design

Published figures name their source and date.

Source and date

Published research identifies its government file and observation date. Source-file SHA-256 coverage is disclosed separately; facts do not currently link deterministically to signatures.

Reproducible SQL

Each study ships the exact query behind its figures, run against the same dated copy of the federal file we used. Re-run it yourself.

Daily observations

The platform records table row counts daily. Those observations 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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Reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD, medical reviewer. Non-practicing medical reviewer.

© 2026 Fonteum LLC. All rights reserved.

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A public-records graph that exposes source and observation metadata where supplied.

Fonteum's provenance ledger contained 26.2M source-linked facts on July 12, 2026. All but 14 carried a source-file SHA-256; 0 linked deterministically to a signature. Inspect a supplied snapshot id at fonteum.com/verify · source-mark coverage and limitations.
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