FY2024 Annual Highlights

The NRRI Partnership Development Team leverages NRRI's mission to drive economic development in Minnesota. Combining business expertise with technical competency, the team strategically manages client relationships and builds innovative research opportunities for business development across the state and beyond. 

Partnership Development added a new Business Development Manager in FY24 to manage the increase in business and industry interested in partnering with NRRI. This position works closely with the Technology Development Manager to generate the most impact from NRRI and partner innovations. Since onboarding this new position, NRRI has engaged with over 72 new leads and accounts in FY24 and helped develop over 59 proposals to expand our work with new and existing partners. Using an institute-wide customer relationship management tool (CRM), NRRI is ready and organized for expanded opportunities ahead.

FY2024 saw the commercial release of the InnovaTree^TM - a fast-growing hybrid poplar tree selectively bred by NRRI researchers. Uses for the tree include carbon sequestration, biomass sourcing, marginal farmland crop, phytoremediation and fast-growing shade trees.

Technology Commercialization 2020–2024

NRRI’s annual budget reflects the total funds spent for all Institute operations during a given fiscal year. The Institute is funded by hard (recurring base support) and soft (grants and contracts) sources. The recurring funding stream consists of a legislative state special for research base support, a legislative endowment to fund Coleraine site operations, and operating and maintenance funds from UMD. The soft funding sources include state and federal grant awards, industry service and research contracts, and foundation support, among others.

The fiscal year 2024 budget continues a year-over-year increase since 2021, and represents a 50% increase from 2020. This trajectory is expected to continue and is a direct result of NRRI’s expanding engagement with federal agencies, notably the Department of Energy as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the Department of Defense.

Stacked Chart 2020–2024

Annual Budget and Funding Breakdown by Year

Annual Budget 2020–2024

Funding Breakdown 2020–2024

Quality, Environmental Health, Safety & Training (QEHST) Office

NRRI’s leading core value is safety first. The QEHST Office leads a proactive Safety Program dedicated to safeguarding staff across laboratory, pilot plant and fieldwork environments. Through regular safety assessments, training, and a strong incident reporting system, the QEHST Office ensures that safety protocols and quality standards are integrated into all aspects of Institute operations.

NRRI’s safety program is a critical, differentiating attribute as the Institute expands its research partnerships with industry, agencies, and academia.

Safety Reports 2022–2024

Attracting and retaining high quality talent and unique skills is vital to maintaining NRRI’s integrated research enterprise. These numbers reflect our continued commitment to building a professional and innovative team.

New Hires 2020–2024

Organizational Development at NRRI focuses on improving the organization’s capacity and performance by aligning our people, structure, metrics, and development opportunities with our strategic plan and management processes. This is a long-range effort and takes a holistic approach to not only individual employees or groups, but the depth and breadth of the entire organization. We are focused on growing our culture across the institute to respond to, and adapt to, our shifting and expanding research and to societal needs. We are also committed to making sure employee engagement is at the forefront of our focus to grow the institute culture for the future.

FY24 Organizational Development Highlights

• Hosted three educational events for all-staff: 
  • “Federal Indian Policies and its Contemporary Impacts” with Karen Diver, University of Minnesota Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs, on
  • “Navigating Difficult Conversations” with Jebeh Edmunds, cultural consultant and UMD alumna. 
  • “Implicit Bias Training” with Kathryn Schreiner, UMD Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Large Lakes Observatory.
• 95% response rate by staff  on the biennial employee engagement survey
• Received funding to create a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Action Plan for NRRI from the US Department of Energy.
• Received a Campus Climate micro-grant, sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office of Equity and Diversity, to remodel a space for a quiet/sensory room for staff.
• NRRI’s first Culture Statement was drafted by a Diversity-Equity-Inclusion sub-committee and approved by the Senior Leadership Team.

NRRI Culture Statement

We bring our best selves to work at NRRI to make a positive impact on our collective future. Our culture of innovation, collaboration and integrated research creates ripples of opportunity for Minnesota, the region, and far beyond. The diversity of our research and our people drives our success.

NRRI’s collaborators and partners range from legislators and industry partners to communities and the general public. We regularly share and update our stakeholders on our research activities through scheduled events, presentations, open houses and tours.

Public Engagements 2022–2024