IIT Research Institute - History of IITRI

History of IITRI

IITRI was formed in 1936 as the Armour Research Foundation (ARF), and was renamed IITRI in 1963. Initially, ARF was formed to support the research endeavors of faculty members from the Armour Institute, predecessor to the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

IITRI is headquartered on the IIT campus in Chicago, but operates as an independent, not-for-profit research organization. Between its founding in 1936 and 2000, IITRI developed research operations in approximately two dozen locations across the United States. The IITRI staff grew to approximately 1700 employees who performed research and development programs with an annual research volume that exceeded $200 M per year.

In 2002, IITRI became entirely focused on the Life Sciences, as all engineering divisions were spun off into a separate, employee-owned corporation (Alion Science and Technology). Since 2002, research at IITRI has been entirely focused on biomedical research, with particular emphasis on non-clinical toxicology, safety evaluations, and drug discovery and development. IITRI currently performs research in five Technical Divisions: Toxicology, Inhalation Toxicology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Carcinogenesis and Cancer Chemoprevention, and Drug Discovery.

In 2006, IITRI formed Technology Research, Inc., (TRI), as a wholly owned subsidiary in which research programs that fall outside of IITRI's not-for-profit charter can be conducted.