Creating Value

Since its founding in 2015, IRIS has expanded into a national initiative which has created new, independent, statistical evidence about the economic impact of research. IRIS universities are using this information to:

1. document their economic impact,
2. manage their research portfolios, and
3. provide evidence that informs outreach to federal and state constituents.

IRIS is a consortium of research universities. We seek to build and maintain a permanent, trusted national resource to support research and reporting to understand, explain, and improve the public value of research.

Individual Campus Reports Support Advocacy and Outreach

Campus-level reports constructed from an individual university’s data provide resources for use in research reports, as well as presentations to the public and other stakeholders. In addition, routine reports from IRIS data improve administrators’ knowledge about the size and composition of the research workforce on campus, the portfolio of federally funded research, and the distribution of people supported by different funders. Future products that integrate information from data linkages made by the U.S. Census Bureau will provide compelling and comprehensive information about the career outcomes of research-trained students, the regional and national economic effects of vendor spending, and entrepreneurship by students, faculty, and staff.

Specific campus-level reports are considered protected data for the participating member universities and are accessible only through the Member Portal.

IRIS produces three reports for its member universities that can be customized to fit the needs of each institution. All are interactive to allow the greatest flexibility in selecting elements that are most relevant. Reports can be constructed to use a fiscal or calendar year format as well.

Spending Report

IRIS creates a Spending Report that focuses on the federal spending for each institution. It details the individuals paid on research funds, highlighting the funders that provided the support, and provides national and regional distributions of research expenditures. An important feature of the report is the state and congressional maps of research spending. The report defaults to federal spending, but members who provide the data can also produce reports on non-federal spending related to research.

Employee Profile Report

Using Census-linked data, the Employee Profile Report presents data about employment and earnings of research-trained employees, allowing institutions to track the flow of people into the economy. It provides top state destinations for research-trained employees who leave to take jobs elsewhere, as well as details about the employment sectors in which they find work and their subsequent earnings.

Vendor Profile Report

Using Census-linked data, the Vendor Profile report provides information on the goods and services purchased using research dollars (again, usually federal) by 2-, 3-, and 4-digit NAICS codes (North American Industry Classification System) and compares this spending to national averages. It also provides details about the vendors, such as number of employees and average wages.