University of Minnesota Joins National Effort to Demonstrate the Impact of Research Funding

University of Minnesota sign in an outdoor setting with fall foliage

The University of Minnesota has joined the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS), a national consortium of leading research universities dedicated to using data to understand and demonstrate the public value of research investments.

IRIS, housed at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, maintains an IRB-approved data repository to collect and analyze research expenditure data from its member institutions. This data is used to generate university-specific and aggregate reports that illustrate the economic and workforce impact of research funding, as well as to produce the IRIS UMETRICS dataset, which has been used by over 500 researchers from nearly 140 institutions.

IRIS Membership Benefits

Through its membership, the University of Minnesota will receive:

  • Tailored reports showcasing how its research enterprise contributes to industries and regional economies, supports national and in-state vendors, and impacts the career trajectories of research staff and trainees.
  • Aggregate reports that highlight the collective impact of research universities. The All IRIS Spending Report for Fiscal Year 2024, released in February, revealed that consortium members contributed over $2.3 billion to the national economy through research-related purchases, benefiting 433 congressional districts.
  • Free access to IRIS UMETRICS, a de-identified research dataset released biannually that includes transaction-level information on over $192 billion in sponsored research funding across more than 100 campuses nationwide.

"We are excited to join with more than 28 public and private institutions across the US to build awareness among university leadership, the public, and policymakers about the economic and social impacts of university research," said Shashank Priya, University of Minnesota vice president for research and innovation. "The reports and datasets provided through IRIS membership will be valuable tools for our institution, and broadly leadership and communities across the State, in understanding the economic and broader impacts of federal funding. This verified, quantifiable information will provide the data needed to advance support for research and innovation."

“We are pleased to welcome the University of Minnesota to our effort to build a high-quality data resource that is ‘of, by, and for’ higher education institutions,” said IRIS Executive Director Jason Owen-Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. “Now more than ever, it’s essential that universities be able to identify and share the many ways people, communities, and businesses in Minnesota and throughout the country benefit from the research work done at the University of Minnesota and institutions like it.”