N.H. Industrial Research Center

by Allen Drake

The New Hampshire Legislature and the Governor created the IRC in 1992 when they recognized the key role academic institutions have in the industrial base of a healthy State economy. It is a cooperative program of UNH, Dartmouth College, Franklin Pierce Law Center and the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development and has as its mission to assist NH industry in becoming more competitive, thereby retaining and increasing industrial employment. Means of carrying out this mission include:

Assistance in basic and applied R&D and manufacturing improvement through a State funded matching grant program, called the Technical Assistance Grant (TAG).

Market research assistance to select companies that successfully complete Technical Assistance Grants.

Hands-on training in powerful, money-saving Design of Experiments (DOX) courses.

Low cost assistance to inventors to develop, patent, copyright, and commercialize their ideas and innovations through the IRC Inventors Assistance Program (IAP).

The Technical Assistance Program enables companies to receive State-subsidized technical help from UNH or Dartmouth, which has led to new or improved products and processes in many areas. These areas include biotechnology, materials, electronics, lasers, adhesion, process technology, pollution reduction, quality improvement, software development, equipment design, product design, workflow enhancement, and operations improvements. Examples of projects in which UNH ECE faculty have been involved include:

A train motion simulator (Profs. Drake and Messner) for Storyland in Jackson.

A screening device for work disorders (Prof. LaCourse) for Biotherapeutics in Portsmouth.

Software development (Prof. Rucinski) for Intellitech in Durham.

Non-intrusive health management (Profs. Rucinski, Rucinska, and LaCourse) for Sanders in Nashua.

An optical/electrical transceiver (Profs. Messner and Drake) for Lancast in Nashua.

Parallel processor development (Prof. Miller) for Current Technology in Durham.

Ergonomic assistance (Prof. LaCourse) for Foss Manufacturing in Hampton.

Apnea monitor (Prof. LaCourse) for Innovative Medical Systems in Manchester.

By demonstrating that the proposed project will increase or preserve the number of jobs in New Hampshire, companies become eligible for State funds to match company funds dollar-for-dollar up to $25,000, and even higher in special cases. Approximately three-quarters of past proposals have been successful, and turn around time for final approval is within two weeks.

The headquarters for the IRC is in Room 138 of Kingsbury Hall on the UNH campus (NH Industrial Research Center, UNH, Durham, NH 03824-3591), and it is currently under the directorship of Dr. Henry Mullaney. He can be reached by phone at 603-862-0123 or by email at hwm@hopper.unh.edu. The IRC maintains a website at nhirc.sr.unh.edu.