History

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was established in 1999 when seven research laboratories were consolidated into one organization. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been streamlining its business practices to provide better service for its customers, and the union of these labs is a major success story.

But ERDC’s roots reach back further, from the founding of each of the individual labs, to the establishment of the Corps of Engineers, and even further to our Nation’s founding.

See a brief overview of the long legacy of American engineering research and innovation that informs ERDC’s history here:

Read more about ERDC’s history in Improving the Common Stock of Knowledge by Damon Manders.

ERDC’s seven laboratories are located in four geographic sites around the country. By consolidating these labs into one research and development organization, ERDC offers our customers one door to diverse initiatives and capabilities. Integrated teams of engineers and scientists across ERDC address a broad range of science and technology issues — from operating in Arctic temperatures to vehicle mobility in desert sands; to protecting a wetland to protecting U.S. troops around the globe; to pinpointing the exact location of an artillery round to predicting the extended habitat range of an endangered species.