Several Employees Laid Off At UND’s EERC Are Now Back To Work

(KNOX) – 9 out of 13 employees who were laid off at the UND Energy and Environmental Research Center are back to work, This comes as the EERC is negotiating with the U.S. Department of Energy for several funding grants.

The EERC told employees in May that 27 permanent cuts and 13 temporary layoffs are because of delays in receiving funding. Nine employees who were laid off have returned to work and five former colleagues have been hired by other UND departments.

The EERC’s budget relies on the research contracts, grants and cooperative agreements it gets. A lot of this funding comes from the Department of Energy.

The day after the cuts were announced, Sen. John Hoeven’s office announced $36 million in DOE funding for the Crack the Code 2.0 initiative. This initiative’s goal is to enhance oil recovery in western North Dakota, as well as build upon the state’s coal-fired power plants.

Hoeven’s office announced in the middle of May that a cooperative agreement had been renewed between the EERC and DOE. The new agreement will provide $25 million over a five year period to support research projects the EERC is conducting.

There are still other grants that are being negotiated between the EERC and the DOE.