DUNS was issued by Dun & Bradstreet which the government has stopped using. Now its a UEI number that is issued by the System for Award Management.
DUNS Number Vs. UEI Number
Both of these numbers identify your business in the SAM registry, however, one number is no longer necessary. The Government phased out the use of the DUNS number in the SAM registry in April 2022. From that date forward, all businesses registering with SAM.gov are assigned a UEI number.
DUNS stands for Data Universal Numbering System and is issued by Dun & Bradstreet. This 9 digit number was previously used to identify your business within the System for Award Management registry. This number had to be requested by the business owner prior to registering on SAM.gov. The old way of getting a DUNS number required you to gather documents and information to verify your business.
Now the Government assigns a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number by way of SAM.gov registration. Unique Entity ID numbers are a 12-digit alphanumeric number issued to every business being registered in the SAM database. SAM.gov removed the option to enter your DUNS number from their application. The change happened to remove the middleman (D&B) from the process and alleviate some additional processing by the Government.