Introducing Stories of Impact: Turning Safety Science into Real-World Results
UL Research Institutes has launched Stories of Impact, a video series that brings viewers inside our labs, classrooms, and partnerships to see how independent research turns safety into real-world results.
For 132 years, UL Research Institutes has advanced safety science to help protect people, communities, and industries navigating fast-moving risks, and this series highlights the people and ideas driving that work. Today, we confront risks evolving faster than ever, including climate and environmental challenges, as well as emerging technologies and digital systems shaping modern life. Through rigorous, independent research led by our scientists, engineers, and researchers, we work toward a safer world by building science people can trust.
Stories of Impact highlights how this work comes to life. Across our institutes, teams generate insights that inform decisions, shape standards, and support real-world solutions. In each episode, you’ll hear directly from the experts behind the work and see what becomes possible when science, purpose, and mission come together.
Watch the first two videos below, then explore more in our Impact Reports.
Office of Partnerships, Extramural Research, and Administration: Advancing safety science through research funding
Learn how ULRI supports the next generation of safety science through the Discoveries in Safety Grants program. By providing $7 million in funding over three years, this work enables researchers to develop science-backed, long-term solutions to some of today’s most pressing challenges, including chemical exposures, energy storage, and wildfire-related risks. Through partnerships with academia and research organizations, this effort expands the reach of independent research and helps accelerate progress toward a safer world.
Fire Safety Research Institute: NERIS transforms emergency response through data
Explore how the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS) is revolutionizing emergency incident reporting and data collection. Built in collaboration with federal partners, NERIS replaces outdated reporting systems with a more dynamic, accessible, and data-driven approach. By enabling departments to analyze incidents in real time and learn across regions, this work supports better decision-making, strengthens real-world impact, and helps ensure more emergencies result in lives saved.
Chemical Insights Research Institute: Making 3D printing in dentistry safer
Explore how researchers are studying the health impacts of chemical exposures associated with emerging technologies like 3D printing. As additive manufacturing expands within dentistry, this work examines how particles, toxins, and volatile organic compounds may be released without proper ventilation and what that means for human health. By generating data and developing practical guidance, the Chemical Insights Research Institute helps reduce exposure risks and supports safer use of these technologies in real-world settings.
Digital Safety Research Institute: Making AI safer by reducing digital risks
See how researchers are addressing the risks associated with artificial intelligence and digital systems as they rapidly evolve. By studying harmful AI behaviors, privacy and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and threats such as deepfakes and online scams, the Digital Safety Research Institute works to better understand how these risks impact the public. This research helps inform safer design and supports the development of more secure, resilient digital environments.
Materials Discovery Research Institute: Data‑driven pathways from discovery to deployment
See how data science, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing accelerate the search for new materials that address urgent environmental challenges, including air and water quality. A robust, digital-first data infrastructure reduces trial and error, supports reproducibility, and speeds iteration, helping researchers advance and scale real-world solutions beyond a single project or program.
Institute for Research Experiences & Education: Educational research that scales impact
Learn how educational research shapes platforms and programs, from K-12 classrooms to higher education, and how evaluation, open science, and community feedback improve outcomes over time. Grounded in the understanding that education creates a safer world, this work brings together research, partnerships, and professional learning for educators to support students and communities globally. The video spotlights global partnerships, professional learning for educators, and standards-aligned resources that help learners engage with safety science and real-world decision making.
Why it matters
Safety science has impact when evidence moves quickly to the people who can use it: educators, engineers, policymakers, health professionals, and community leaders.
Stories of Impact makes that journey visible and reflects our commitment to conducting rigorous, unbiased research and sharing findings openly, delivering science you trust for the safer world we all deserve.
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