Press release – March 2025
Utah State University has joined the Institute for Research on Innovation & 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.
Through its membership, Utah State 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. Additionally, Utah State researchers will gain free access to IRIS UMETRICS, a de-identified research dataset that includes transaction-level information on over $192 billion in sponsored research funding across more than 100 campuses nationwide. The dataset, released biannually, has been used in publications of numerous books and peer-reviewed articles.
“Having use of this kind of data is an invaluable resource for Utah State University. As both Utah’s land grant institution and its newest R1 university, UMETRICS data can help us show the extensive positive impact that USU has on the state’s economy and preparation of its workforce,” commented David Feldon, Utah State University’s Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Studies.
Founded in 2015, IRIS membership currently includes 28 public and private universities nationwide. Members have used IRIS reports to communicate the economic and social impacts of research-related spending to university leadership, the public, and policymakers.
“We are pleased to welcome Utah State 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 Utah and throughout the country benefit from the research work done at Utah State and institutions like it.”
IRIS also produces 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.
About IRIS
The Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS) was founded in 2015 with initial support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Ongoing funding comes from member contributions and externally sponsored projects. IRIS was created to expand the Universities Measuring the EffecTs of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Science (UMETRICS) initiative, developed in collaboration with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. IRIS is anchored on an IRB-approved repository housed at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization.
For more information, visit iris.isr.umich.edu or contact [email protected].