Through contracts with the NDSU Research Foundation, the university's extensive human and physical resources are available to help meet corporate research, technology and development needs and to help industry sustain its technology base. By contracting for use of university resources, industry can save on costly long-term investments of capital and labor in research and development. Companies and university researchers can also look to the NDSU Research Foundation as a vehicle for transferring scientific discoveries, technology, products and processes developed through NDSU research to the marketplace. The Foundation can arrange for the patenting, copyright , licensing, and sale of intellectual properties and develop arrangements in which the Foundation takes an equity position in a commercial activity. A board of 12 directors is responsible for the management and general administration of the NDSU Research Foundation.
Board members serve for one-year terms.
The NDSU Research Foundation is administered through an executive director who reports to the Board of Directors. North Dakota State University celebrated its 100th year as a land-grant institution in 1989. Its 450 faculty members provide a broad array of research and technical expertise through the College of Agriculture, Science and Mathematics, Engineering and Architecture, Pharmacy, Home Economics, Business Administration, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Education. NDSU is recognized as a research leader in polymers and coatings, plant breeding, agriculture product development, economic feasibility studies, and many other areas. The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, the NDSU Institute for Business and Industry Development and the Perkins Engineering Computer Center also enhance the university's capacity to conduct corporate research.