A consortium of universities and companies has been awarded the contract to manage and operate Fermilab, the US’s premier particle-physics facility. The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced on 1 October that the new contractor, Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC (FFDV), will take over operation of the lab from 1 January 2025.
FFDV consists of Fermilab’s current contractor – the University of Chicago and Universities Research Association (URA), a consortium of research universities – as well as the industrial firms Amentum Environment & Energy, Inc. and Longenecker & Associates. The conglomerate’s initial contract will last for five years but “exemplary performance” running the lab could extend that by a further decade.
“We are honoured that the Department of Energy has selected FermiForward to manage Fermilab after a rigorous contract process,” University of Chicago president Paul Alivisatos told Physics World. “FermiForward represents a new approach that brings together the best parts of Fermilab with two new industry partners, who bring broad expertise from a deep bench from across the DOE complex.”
Alivisatos notes that the inclusion of Amentum and Longenecker will strengthen the management capability of the consortium given the companies’ “exemplary record of accomplishment in project management, operations, and safety.” Longenecker, a female-led company based in Las Vegas, is part of the managerial teams currently running Sandia, Los Alamos, and Savannah River national laboratories. Virginia-based Amentum, meanwhile, has a connection to Fermilab through Greg Stephens, its former vice president, who is now Fermilab’s chief operating officer.
The choice of the new contractor comes after Fermilab has faced a series of operating and budget challenges. In 2021, the institution scored low marks on a DOE assessment of its operations. A year later, complaints emerged that the lab’s leadership was restricting access to its campus despite reduced concern about the spread of COVID-19. In July, a group of Fermilab staff whistleblowers claimed that a series of problems indicated that the lab was “doomed” without a change of management. And in late August, the lab underwent a period of limited operations to reduce a budgetary shortfall.
The Fermilab staff whistleblowers, however, see little change in the DOE’s selection of FFDV. Indeed, the key members of FFDV – the University of Chicago and URA – made up Fermi Research Alliance, the previous contractor that has overseen Fermilab’s operations since 2007.
“We understand that the only reaction by DOE to our investigative report is that of coaching the University of Chicago’s teams that steward the university’s relationships with the national labs,” the group wrote in a letter to Geraldine Richmond, DOE’s Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, which has been seen by Physics World. “By doing so, the DOE is once again showing that it is for the status-quo.”
The DOE hasn’t revealed how many bids it received or other details about the contract award. In a statement to Physics World it noted that it “cannot discuss the contract at the current time because of business sensitive information”. Fermilab declined to comment for the story.
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