KRI At Northeastern University, LLC

KRI At Northeastern University, LLC (doing business as KRI) is a private research entity affiliated with Northeastern University that conducts advanced research and development for the Department of Defense as a prime contractor (65% of awards) and as a subcontractor on DARPA and university-led research programs. KRI operates without SBA set-asides and competes full-and-open across defense research vehicles.

KRI's customer base is heavily concentrated in Army research infrastructure. The top five funding agencies account for 90% of awards, with the Department of the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command dominating at 25 awards valued at $316.5 million in combined potential value, followed by the Department of the Navy Secretary of the Navy Office of Naval Research (8 awards, $28.8 million), the Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory (3 awards, $8.9 million), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (6 awards, $295 thousand). This customer concentration reflects KRI's positioning as a foundational research provider for Army modernization priorities.

KRI holds multiple single-award indefinite delivery contracts with Army Research Development and Engineering Command that anchor its prime portfolio. The largest is a $90.9 million IDIQ (W911QX23D0002) for artificial intelligence and assistive automation research running through November 2026, which has generated six task orders valued at $8 million across methodology development for autonomous navigation, cyber-assured systems, and soldier-system compatibility analysis. A $79.8 million single-award IDIQ (W911QX23D0004) for non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation effects research has generated three task orders including a $19.4 million delivery order (Task Order III) issued March 5, 2026, extending through March 4, 2027, and a $2.77 million task order for materials research and biological tissue modeling. A newer $30 million single-award IDIQ (W911QX25D0004) for antennas and sensor advancements research was awarded February 27, 2025, with primary performance in Durham, North Carolina. KRI also holds a $26.207 million multiple-award Other Transaction IDV from Army Research Development and Engineering Command for expeditionary modular shelter system prototyping (awarded April 15, 2025) and a recently awarded $151 billion multiple-award IDIQ from the Missile Defense Agency for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program (awarded December 29, 2025), on which an initial $500 delivery order was placed the same date.

Recent individual delivery orders reflect KRI's research portfolio depth. A $1.5 million cost-no-fee delivery order from Army Research Development and Engineering Command (awarded October 1, 2025, completing September 30, 2026) supports rapid evaluation of Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army funding strategies. A $427,741 delivery order (awarded June 6, 2025, completing November 30, 2026) provides methodology analysis for the PRANCE (Perceptive and Reactive Autonomous Navigation in Challenging Environments) Black Widow autonomous systems program. A $999,999.52 delivery order (awarded May 14, 2025) tasks Northeastern University as subcontractor to analyze and visualize weather model ensembles for military meteorologists. A $499,999 delivery order (awarded March 31, 2025) funds antennas and sensor advancements research under a broad agency announcement.

Beyond Army work, KRI holds a $16.5 million definitive cost-no-fee contract from the Department of the Navy Secretary of the Navy Office of Naval Research (awarded September 10, 2021, completing September 12, 2024) for development and deployment of cyber-assured expeditionary systems and full-spectrum cyber effects integrated with minesweeping payload technologies for the Naval Sea Systems Command Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Surface Vehicle program. KRI is a recipient on federal grant cooperative agreements with Army Research Development and Engineering Command including Perceptive and Reactive Autonomous Navigation in Challenging Environments (PRANCE, awarded December 22, 2023, completing December 21, 2025), Cognitive Distributed Sensing in Congested Radio Frequency Environments (awarded March 15, 2023, completing March 15, 2028), and Testing & Evaluation for Soldier-Device Teaming Compatibility, Vulnerability, and Durability in Emergent Situations (awarded January 15, 2022, completing June 30, 2025). KRI is also recipient on a Defense Threat Reduction Agency project grant for Color Changing Coatings for Selective Detection of Vesicants (awarded November 26, 2024, completing November 25, 2029).

KRI places work as a subcontractor on DARPA-funded research initiatives. Under a Vanderbilt University prime, KRI provides sensor design and side-channel analysis supporting the Continuous-Correctness on Opaque Processors (COOP) effort (awards February 12, 2025, and July 28, 2025) to develop hardware and software tools guaranteeing software correctness using formal methods and side-channels. Under a University of Missouri prime, KRI analyzes hardware and software architectures for RF machine learning classifier models supporting the Covert Unmanned Cyber and Countermeasures for Offensive Operations (CUCKOO) program (awarded May 9, 2024). Under a Northeastern University prime, KRI leads design and implementation of test platforms for the Generating Asymmetric Obscurants Using Adaptive Janus Aerosols research effort (awarded October 24, 2023). KRI also subcontracts to Systems & Technology Research LLC on Project Istanbul for EMI and RF emission measurements (awarded January 22, 2026) and to Battelle Memorial Institute on DARPA research (awarded June 14, 2025). KRI receives grant sub-awards from Northeastern University on multiple programs including innovative magnetic material solutions for Navy high-frequency power systems and advanced terrain analytics research, and from the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences on additive manufacturing and advanced materials technology for maritime asset sustainment.

Activity has grown substantially year over year — from three awards in 2022 to seventeen in 2025 — though early 2026 data is partial (four awards recorded). Seven awards with combined potential value of $25.6 million reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure. All prime contracts use no set-asides and operate cost-no-fee or cost-plus-no-fee pricing, positioning KRI as a research-focused partner rather than a fee-bearing contractor. Place of performance centers on Burlington, Massachusetts, with secondary operations in Durham, North Carolina, and subcontracted work distributed across partner universities and research institutions.