Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory

What Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory does

The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) is a research laboratory within Colorado State University's Warner College of Natural Resources, founded in 1975 and headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. It conducts ecosystem science research spanning soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, climate change impacts on agricultural and natural systems, grassland productivity, wildlife ecology, and participatory science, funded primarily through competitive federal grants from DOE, NSF, USDA, and NASA.

NREL's core technology portfolio includes the Century and DAYCENT ecosystem models (decades-old process-based simulation tools for soil biogeochemistry), the EcoCore Analytical Facility (a campus-wide fee-for-service laboratory offering isotope, elemental, molecular, and microbial analysis of environmental samples), the CitSci.org participatory science platform (supporting 1,277 community-driven projects with 15,000+ participants and nearly 2 million measurements), and the Grass-Cast grassland productivity forecasting tool developed with USDA partners. Additional offerings include COMET-FARM, COMET-Planner, and the Carbon Benefits Project for greenhouse gas assessment by farmers, ranchers, and policymakers, as well as the NASA DEVELOP applied science training program.

The lab's business model is grant-funded academic research with ancillary fee-for-service and open-access components. NREL secures competitive federal grants, participates in multi-institution research centers (notably the DOE-funded CABBI bioenergy center with 20 partner institutions), charges tiered analytical fees through EcoCore to CSU, non-profit, and commercial customers, and distributes free web-based decision-support tools (Grass-Cast, COMET-FARM, CitSci.org) to ranchers, farmers, and citizen scientists. Customer concentration sits heavily with U.S. federal agencies, particularly DOE and USDA.

Name

Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory

Legal name

Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University

Website

https://nrel.colostate.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) is a 50-year-old research unit within Colorado State University that develops ecosystem models (Century, DAYCENT), runs the fee-for-service EcoCore Analytical Facility, and operates the CitSci.org participatory science platform and Grass-Cast forecasting tool, funded primarily by federal grants from DOE, USDA, NSF, and NASA.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental Research Services

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (541620), Farm Management Services (115116)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYAFAAAFAF

Decision Support & Agronomic Modeling (Yield, Irrigation, Pest/Disease Forecasting)

Agriculture & Food Production/Agricultural Equipment & Technology/Precision Agriculture & Farm Management Software (GIS, IoT, Telematics)

SECONDARYAFACABAL

Carbon, Sustainability & Farm Certification Support (Agro-Environmental Advisory)

Agriculture & Food Production/Agricultural Services (Custom Farming, Agronomy, Veterinary)/Crop Consulting & Agronomy Services (Soil Health, Nutrient Planning, Yield Consulting)

SECONDARYAFAAAFAO

Farm Finance, Input Procurement & Risk Tools (Budgeting, Inventory, Insurance Links)

Agriculture & Food Production/Agricultural Equipment & Technology/Precision Agriculture & Farm Management Software (GIS, IoT, Telematics)

Keywords

• Ecosystem modeling software
• Analytical laboratory services
• Citizen science platform
• Agricultural research services
• Greenhouse gas assessment

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Collins

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Federal Research Grants: NREL researchers secure competitive grants from federal agencies including the Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), USDA, and NASA to fund ecosystem science research programs. The CABBI center alone represents a $237.9 million DOE investment from 2017-2027.
2. Analytical Services: EcoCore Analytical Facility charges fees for analytical services and instrument use on a per-sample basis, with additional lab use fees per hour. Rates differ for CSU, non-CSU non-profit, and commercial customers. Discounts apply for self-operated analysis and large sample volumes.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NREL is a university research laboratory at Colorado State University that conducts ecosystem science research and operates the EcoCore Analytical Facility (fee-for-service soil, plant, water and environmental sample analysis), the CitSci.org participatory science platform, and a portfolio of ecosystem modeling and decision-support tools (Century, DAYCENT, COMET-FARM, COMET-Planner, Grass-Cast). Its work spans food security, water security, climate change, ecosystem management, wildlife management, and sustainable communities through competitive federal grants and collaborative research.

Product overview

The Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University operates as a research institution offering a portfolio of scientific platforms, tools, and analytical services rather than a unified commercial product. Core offerings include the EcoCore Analytical Facility (a campus-wide analytical laboratory providing elemental, molecular, microbial, and isotopic analysis of environmental samples), the CitSci.org participatory science platform (a cloud-based system and mobile app for community-driven environmental data collection), and Grass-Cast (an online grassland productivity forecasting tool for ranchers). The portfolio also includes ecosystem modeling tools such as DAYCENT and CENTURY (used for simulating carbon and nitrogen dynamics), decision-support systems like COMET-FARM and COMET-Planner (for greenhouse gas assessments from agricultural practices), and educational programs like NASA's DEVELOP initiative. These products serve researchers, land managers, government agencies, and citizen scientists working on ecosystem science, climate change, and sustainable agriculture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• EcoPress: NREL's news site covering ecosystem science stories, research updates, and scientific publications.
• CitSci

Products and services

• EcoCore Analytical Facility A campus-wide common-use analytical facility providing elemental, molecular, microbial, and isotopic analysis of soil, plant, water, and other environmental samples, with training, educational services, and fee-based analytical services for CSU researchers, federal agencies, and external institutions.
• CitSci.org A cloud-based participatory science platform and mobile application providing free tools and resources for community-driven public science projects that crowdsource data collection for environmental monitoring, conservation, and research applications.
• Grass-Cast Grassland Productivity Forecast An online decision-support tool that uses over 30 years of historical weather and vegetation data with seasonal precipitation forecasts to predict grassland productivity for ranchers and land managers at 6-mile x 6-mile resolution across the Northern and Southern Plains, New Mexico, and Arizona.
• COMET-FARM A web-based decision support tool that enables farmers, ranchers, and project developers to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration from agricultural management practices.
• COMET-Planner A simplified planning tool providing quick estimates of greenhouse gas benefits from specific agricultural conservation practices.
• DAYCENT Ecosystem Model A daily time-step version of the Century model used to simulate carbon and nitrogen dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems and to support greenhouse gas inventory assessments and agricultural management scenario evaluations.
• CENTURY Ecosystem Model An ecosystem model simulating carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur dynamics for terrestrial ecosystems, used extensively for modeling grassland, agricultural, and forest soils to evaluate management impacts on greenhouse gas emissions.
• Carbon Benefits Project A project providing tools and methodologies for quantifying carbon benefits from land management projects and agricultural practices.

Quantifiable outcome

• CABBI research shows cellulosic bioenergy crops could replace all corn grain currently used for U.S. ethanol production while reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and nitrate leaching
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Agricultural Nitrogen Use Efficiency Platform (AgNUE)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026International collaboration hosted by Aarhus University and supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Stephen Ogle from NREL participates as CSU representative in this new network dedicated to measuring nitrogen dynamics in agricultural fields across Europe and North America.
• Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, CABBI is a DOE-funded bioenergy research center involving 20 partner institutions including CSU. CSU scientists William Parton, Melannie Hartman, and Susan Lutz from NREL participate as CABBI team members working on feedstock production, conversion, and sustainability assessments for bioenergy crops.
• USDA Agricultural Research ServicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative development of the Grass-Cast grassland productivity forecasting tool, originally created by CSU researchers and further developed with USDA researchers and ranchers. Work conducted at USDA facilities including Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory.
• USDA Northern Plains Climate HubcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDannele Peck serves as director overseeing Grass-Cast as part of the USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub, providing agricultural economics expertise for drought forecasting applications.
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation ServicemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Grass-Cast expansion and development providing federal agricultural expertise and resources for grassland management tools.
• U.S. Forest ServicemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Grass-Cast collaborative initiative bringing federal land management agency perspective to grassland productivity forecasting.
• National Drought Mitigation Center at University of Nebraska-LincolnmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Grass-Cast development providing drought monitoring and mitigation expertise to enhance grassland forecasting capabilities.
• Aarhus UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution for the Agricultural Nitrogen Use Efficiency (AgNUE) Platform. Partnership brings together institutions across Europe and the United States to establish supersites for detailed nitrogen measurement.
• CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStarted at CSU 25 years ago with rain gauges in Fort Collins backyards, CoCoRaHS has grown to over 26,000 volunteers providing daily precipitation measurements across the U.S. and internationally.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• SGS Agriculture: Agricultural testing and certification services from SGS, a global inspection and verification company. Comparable to EcoCore in providing commercial analytical services for agricultural and environmental samples, particularly for certification and compliance workflows.
• Climate Fieldview (Bayer): Bayer's digital agriculture platform providing farm decision-support, agronomic modeling, and field data analytics. Comparable to NREL's COMET-FARM/Grass-Cast in serving farmers with predictive insights, but at vastly greater commercial scale and with proprietary data infrastructure.
• Indigo Ag: Agricultural technology company offering carbon credit programs, microbial products, and digital agronomy. Directly comparable to NREL's sustainability/carbon work (COMET-FARM, DAYCENT) in enabling ag-based carbon sequestration and Scope 3 reporting, but with venture-backed commercial model.
• Granular (Corteva): Corteva's farm management software offering agronomic insights, crop planning, and profitability analytics. Comparable in providing decision-support for agricultural producers, but with commercial-grade UX and integration into Corteva's seed and crop protection business.
• Eurofins Scientific: Global laboratory testing services network including agricultural, environmental, and soil analysis. Comparable to NREL's EcoCore Analytical Facility in providing fee-for-service analytical capabilities for soil, plant, and environmental samples, but at vastly greater commercial scale and global footprint.

Direct peers

• Zooniverse: Online citizen science platform enabling volunteers to participate in research across multiple disciplines. Comparable to CitSci.org as a participatory science infrastructure provider, with similar crowdsourcing model but academic-led rather than community-led project hosting.
• Farmers Edge: Digital ag platform delivering field-level data, agronomic recommendations, and sustainability reporting. Comparable to NREL's COMET-FARM in providing sustainability/carbon accounting tools to farmers and agribusiness, but as a commercial entity with broader geographic coverage.
• iNaturalist (California Academy of Sciences / National Geographic): Citizen science platform for recording biodiversity observations. Comparable to CitSci.org as a participatory science platform, though iNaturalist focuses on species observations while CitSci.org hosts broader community science project tools. Both serve citizen science participants globally.

Others

• USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS): Federal in-house research agency conducting agricultural and ecosystem research, including partner on Grass-Cast development. Comparable as an ecosystem science research institution with federal grant funding, though structured as a federal agency rather than a university research lab.

Emerging players

• Taranis: AI-powered precision agriculture platform using aerial imagery and field-level analytics. Comparable to NREL's spatial modeling work for crop and ecosystem management, but commercial-focused with venture capital backing and broader crop coverage.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NREL_EcoPress
• YouTubevimeo.com/ecopress
• Facebookfacebook.com/nrelscience
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/colorado-state-university

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory