WRRI: Who We Are

WRRI Summaries:

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The Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) is a unit of The University of North Carolina system established in 1965 by executive action of UNC President William C. Friday. Headquartered at North Carolina State University, it is one of 54 state water institutes that were authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 to administer and promote federal/state partnerships in research and information transfer on water-related issues.

WRRI receives federally appropriated funds through the U.S. Geological Survey’s State Water Research Institute Program and state funding through The University of North Carolina system. The Institute also arranges research partnerships and competes for federal, state, and foundation grants and contracts.

The mission of WRRI is threefold: to identify the state’s ever-changing research needs, to motivate and support research by qualified scientists, and to provide for technology transfer.

What We Do

WRRI derives its funding from federal and state appropriations, local government consortia, and competitive grants. The Institute identifies needed research by tracking water issues and by seeking input from an Advisory Committee representing state and federal agencies, industry, agriculture, local government, and the public at large. Part of those needs are served through an Institute-funded competitive grant program. We issue requests for proposals from researchers with water-related expertise at all senior colleges and universities in North Carolina. When proposals are submitted we coordinate review by our Technical Committee members, award research funds based on the committee’s recommendations, and provide administrative support for the contracts.

WRRI also competes for research grants and contracts from the federal government and private foundations. In those competitions we draw on the vast resources of faculty in all of North Carolina’s institutions of higher education.

WRRI identifies possible partnership arrangements for addressing more narrow research needs. The NC Urban Water Consortium, a group of some of North Carolina’s larger municipal providers of water and sewer services. The Consortium funds research to provide information and solve problems related to individual facilities or to local and regional environmental and regulatory circumstances.

WRRI publishes peer-reviewed technical reports on completed research projects and arranges for technology transfer from researchers to state agency personnel and others who can put the research results to work. The Institute helps keep the public informed about water issues and research results by publishing a bimonthly newsletter, WRRI News, an annual program and maintaining a web site, http://www.ncsu.edu/wrri/.

WRRI informs and educates water resources professionals, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students through electronic lists, seminars, workshops, and conferences. One highlight includes our Annual Conference, the state’s premier water research conference, held in Raleigh every spring. Participants, consisting of environmental professionals from federal, state and local government agencies and private environmental consulting entities, come away with the latest research and information to promote protection and wise use of North Carolina’s water resources.

Finally, WRRI has coordinated a number of internships that provide college students opportunities to work with the U.S. Geological Survey and state agencies to gain practical experience in various areas of environmental protection.

Urban Water Consortium and Stormwater Group

In 1985, WRRI in cooperation with several of North Carolina’s larger cities established the North Carolina Urban Water Consortium to provide a program of research and development and technology transfer on water problems that urban areas share. In 1998, several members of the partnership formed a special group to sponsor research and technology transfer on issues related to urban stormwater management. Through these partnerships, WRRI helps individual facilities and regions solve problems related to local environmental or regulatory circumstances.

The NC Urban Water Consortium (http://www.ncsu.edu/wrri/uwc/) and Stormwater Group (http://www.ncsu.edu/wrri/stormwater/) are administered by WRRI. Participants support the program through annual dues and enhancement funds and guide the program through representation on an advisory board, selection of research topics, participation in design of requests for proposals, and review of proposals.

Consortium members include Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, Fayetteville Public Works Commission, Greenville Utilities Commission, Orange County Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA), and the Cities of Burlington, Durham, Greensboro, High Point, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem.

Members of the Stormwater Group include the Cities of Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, High Point, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.