The University of Minnesota Research and Innovation Office (RIO) advances the University’s research enterprise, fostering innovation and addressing global challenges through collaborative initiatives. Under the leadership of Vice President Shashank Priya, RIO promotes cutting-edge research, facilitates partnerships across disciplines, and grows the University’s role as a hub for groundbreaking discoveries and technology commercialization, ultimately contributing to societal progress. These special projects, initiatives, and research priorities focus on advancing sustainability, health equity, and the integration of emerging technologies, empowering the U of M community to pioneer solutions that positively impact both local and global communities.
Strategic Initiatives
Along with partners throughout the UMN system, the Research and Innovation Office is advancing emerging research areas and new programs that align with national interests and industry priorities and are aimed at attracting funding, strengthening the U's research capabilities, and increasing our global competitiveness.
Sustainable Technologies & Systems
National Security
Equitable & Inclusive Society/Workplace
Strategic Partnerships
RIO helps empower partnerships by providing resources, knowledge, skills, and connections to the University’s research community so that they can deepen discoveries through basic research and tackle complex, real world problems across disciplines and organizations. Partnerships with industry and the public sector also ensure that students are equipped with the necessary skills and experiences to excel in their chosen careers, and that our state’s economy has the skilled workforce it needs.
Research Centers & Institutes
RIO supports 12 University-wide academic centers and institutes. Two new additions to this group are the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) and Minnesota Sea Grant. RIO leaders are working with the two centers to help create new partnerships for research projects and academic programs to grow and coordinate research and innovation work across the University of Minnesota.
Corporate Engagement Center
The Corporate Engagement Center (CEC) is a partnership between RIO and the University of Minnesota Foundation’s Corporate Foundation Engagement team. CEC connects leading researchers, University programs and strategic initiatives at the U with corporations locally, nationally and globally. CEC’s focus is a portfolio of 70+ strategic companies, including Minnesota’s 17 Fortune 500 Companies. In 2024, CEC helped secure more than $69 million in investments from the CEC Strategic Portfolio companies, and delivered more than a dozen million dollar plus proposals to portfolio companies, among other accomplishments.
Innovation Minnesota
Under the CEC, VP Priya has also convened Innovation Minnesota, a leadership council made up of key technology leaders and officers that will help identify emerging technologies and workforce needs that will help grow existing companies, attract new companies to the state, and launch more startups. Innovation Minnesota will also identify barriers that are impeding innovation in the state.
Technology Commercialization: Discover → Advance → Impact ™
UMN Technology Commercialization is a highly regarded tech transfer shop among its university peers nationwide, with more than 260 startup companies launched since 2006, more than 3,200 current licenses, and more than 500 active patents. RIO and CEC are supporting a new Tech Comm initiative to take that work to the next level. The Discover → Advance → Impact program™ aims to grow the level of commercializable UMN inventions through gap funding to help develop early technologies and an angel investor network to boost UMN startup company success, among other efforts.
Federal Agency Outreach
In order to grow research opportunities for faculty and students, RIO began creating events for visiting officials and traveling to meet with potential funders and partners across the country as well as abroad. For example, in April 2024, RIO welcomed 28 researchers and leaders from Sandia National Laboratories for an entire day of tours, presentations, and networking to build on 11 existing research collaborations.
Recent visits have included:
- NSF Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP)
Dr. Gracie Narcho, Deputy Assistant Director, June 2023 - Army Research Office (ARO)
Dr. Barton Halpern, Director, August 2023 - National Science Foundation (NSF)
Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, October 2023 - US Census
Deirdre Bishop, Chief of Geography Division, December 2023 - DoD Strat. Enviro. Research & Dev. Program (SERDP)
Kim Spangler, Director, January 2024 - DOE ARPA-E delegation
February 2024 - Sandia National Labs delegation
April 2024 - Defense Research and Engineering (USD (R&E))
Dr. Kimberly Sablon, Principal Director for Trusted AI and Autonomy, May 2024
Greater MSP
RIO has deepened the University's partnership with Greater MSP, a partnership that promotes regional competitiveness, helping to ensure that the partnerships's strategic directions are aligned with the strengths and potential future growth areas of the University's research and innovation enterprise, such as semiconductors and microelectronics, sustainable plastics, hypersonic aviation, sustainable aviation fuel and biomanufacturing, and regenerative agriculture. VP Priya sits on the executive council of Greater MSP's MBOLD initiative, which develops practical solutions to global challenges facing the food and agriculture sectors.
Microelectronics Research
To help advance microelectronics research at the U and the regional microelectronics industry, RIO appointed the University’s first Chief Semiconductor Officer (CSO), Steven Koester, and launched a website devoted to the University’s semiconductor and microelectronics research and education: chips.umn.edu. The CSO’s responsibilities include coordinating University research and education initiatives related to microelectronics, especially those under the US CHIPS and Science Act, and representing the University within larger industry efforts. Recent efforts have included a new training program for 60 employees of Minnesota microelectronics companies, membership in SCALE, a defense semiconductor workforce development program sponsored by DoD, and creation of the previously mentioned Minnesota MicroElectronics Consortium (MNMEC).
International Partnerships
India
In addition to Sustainable GeoCommunities work described previously, RIO leaders are also exploring potential health care, medical device and material science collaborations in Bangalore, which Priya visited in February and signed a general Memorandum of Understanding with the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and met with leading hospitals. RIO leaders also visited the aforementioned Amrita University in June and signed an MOU with Amrita academic leadership in Chicago in August.
Australia
In June, Governor Margaret Gardner of the Australian state of Victoria toured UMN’s Nano Center, met with Minnesota med tech leaders, and heard a presentation on IIB. Priya visited research university partners and national laboratories in Australia last year as part of a Minnesota trade delegation, including Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, which he sees as a potential research partner in areas such as biosensing, microelectronics, and clinical research.
Germany
RIO and other UMN partners also continue to work with Kiel University in Germany on potential academic and research partnerships that may include student and staff exchanges, collaboration in innovation and technology transfer, and joint work in common fields of interest such as biosensing, material sciences, food and agriculture, life sciences, neuroimaging, cultural studies and marine science and technology. To strengthen these collaborative efforts, and a delegation from Kiel U. visited UMN in September for a workshop on Precision Sensing, organized by IIB. This three-day program will feature presentations by leading researchers in the fields of precision sensing for biomedical, agricultural, and environmental applications, as well as lab tours and a strategic session aimed at securing funding for future international collaborations.
South Korea
Under the leadership of VP Priya, RIO has significantly strengthened the University's partnerships with leading institutions in South Korea. Building upon the historic Minnesota Project, our collaboration with Seoul National University (SNU) continues with new areas of common interest. Initiatives led by VP Priya have culminated in an MOU with SNU, the hosting of 16 SNU undergraduates in January 2024, and the launch of a collaborative RFP between the IIB and SNU, aimed at advancing biosensing research collaboration and mutual visits. Additionally, we have established MOUs with Hanyang University—where President Ki-Jeong Lee is a UMN alumnus—as well as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Seoul.
Research Infrastructure Investments
New Internal Funding Opportunities
In addition to existing research advancement programs (Grant-in-Aid, Research Infrastructure, Summer Bridge Funding), RIO has created or restarted several new programs to seed new research directions.