NIRI Is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year. Since 2005, NIRI has grown from a university spin-out into an internationally-recognized commercial consultancy – helping more than 450 companies enhance product performance, achieve sustainability goals, reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Professor Stephen Russell and Chris Fowler first met in 2003.  As one of the leading minds in nonwovens, Russell was heading a research group at The University of Leeds while Chris, with a background in running innovative medical technology companies, was looking for an investment opportunity.  Their complementary skillsets led to the establishment of NIRI – as a spin-out of the university – with Fowler as managing director and Russell as Technical Director. 

Recognizing the need for world-class talent to support real-world, commercial product development, NIRI has always had a clear focus on attracting driven individuals who are passionate about technical textile development.  The consultancy now has more than 400 years of combined nonwovens expertise, including principal scientists, senior innovation engineers, and technicians. NIRI’s first ever recruit, Dr. Matthew Tipper, is now CEO.

NIRI has – to-date – helped improve more than 1000 products, including novel blood plasma filters for the NHS, more discreet hygiene products, ballistic protection for soldiers, virus filtering masks, longer-lasting mosquito nets and plastic-free alternative components. 

“Having successfully innovated many novel products across many sectors I am proud of the positive impact the NIRI team has made for our clients, end users and the planet,” Fowler says. “I feel our mission to develop cost effective, novel products, which deliver high performance and help protect the planet is even more relevant today than when we started out over 20 years ago.”

The products NIRI develop for customers not only solve the technical challenge of meeting specific performance characteristics but are also commercially viable.  Crucial to helping clients achieve innovation within commercial timescales, to optimizing time-to-market for new product development and existing product enhancement, NIRI prioritise investment in facilities and equipment: from expansion out of the university premises in 2017, through to the opening of Innovation House in 2023, a £1.2 million investment. This latest move more than doubled the size of NIRI’s facilities, with seven new laboratories and significantly increased R&D capabilities.

And NIRI continue to look to the future, with investment into biopolymer processing and development; in R&D focused on high performance PFAS and further investment this year in polymerization facilities.

“It’s been exciting to be part of NIRI’s 20-year evolution, from small University-spinout to an internationally recognized commercial innovation company,” Russel says. “It’s been a pleasure to work with so many different companies over the years, to deliver meaningful product improvements, and to witness the real-world impact, first hand”.

Most recently, NIRI has launched the Technology & Innovation Hub, allowing start-up companies to co-locate alongside state-of-the-art facilities, complemented by support services and access to NIRI’s commercialisation expertise through bespoke packages to help start-ups and scale-ups accelerate innovation to commercially viable technologies.

NIRI remains committed to its original commercially-driven ethos.  Helping clients reduce costs and improve efficiency is at the heart of development and innovation.

“After 20 years NIRI continues to build on the founding vision of combining scientific excellence with industry knowledge to help the polymer, textile and nonwoven industry develop new products, solve industrial problems and generate new business,” Tipper says. “Looking to the future, the industry faces a radical change with new regulations, sustainability requirements, cost challenges, social responsibilities and the transition to a circular economy. NIRI is at the forefront of these material challenges and continues to help our clients meet existing and emerging business needs.”