Top 10 | August 2026 | Grand Forks EDC

1. Cirrus Cuts Ribbon on Grand Forks Expansion

Cirrus Aircraft cut the ribbon on its Grand Forks expansion on August 14th, a multi-million-dollar project that added more than 30,000 square feet to the company’s composite manufacturing operations. The expansion increases production capacity for the SR Series and Vision Jet lines and includes upgrades to automation, equipment integration, and workplace safety systems. The facility employs approximately 500 people, with about 80% in direct manufacturing roles spanning production, engineering, safety and quality assurance, CNC machining, and training. The expansion will also serve as the site where Cirrus manufactures composite components for its newly introduced TRAC10 flight training aircraft.

2. Brockhouse Joins EDC as Business Development Manager

Howard Brockhouse has joined the Grand Forks Region EDC staff as Business Development Manager, where he will develop and implement strategies supporting primary sector business recruitment and expansion in Grand Forks County. Brockhouse brings more than 30 years of experience in business development, management, training, and project management, most recently as Director of Manufacturing & Training at Northland Community and Technical College’s National Center for Autonomous Technologies, where he coordinated the DroneZone, Trusted Operator drone training, and the Composite Bootcamp. He holds an associate degree from Northland Community and Technical College and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Welcome to the team, Howard!

3. GrandSKY Hosts Technology-Readiness Experimentation Exercise (T-REX)

GrandSKY, in partnership with the North Dakota and Indiana National Guard, hosted a Technology-Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) exercise over several weeks at Camp Grafton South and GrandSKY, culminating in a day of technology demonstrations at GrandSKY on August 27th. The T-REX program is designed to quickly evaluate drone and counter-drone technologies with the potential to address contested logistics and integrated base defense challenges.

4. GFAFB Receives $250,000 Base Enhancement Grant

Grand Forks Air Force Base will receive $250,000 from the North Dakota Department of Commerce through the state’s Base Enhancement Grant Program, which awarded $1 million total across Grand Forks Air Force Base, Minot Air Force Base, and the Fargo Air National Guard. The program funds projects that improve installation readiness, community integration, strategic positioning, quality of life, and long-term mission sustainability. Evaluators assessed proposals for mission alignment, impact and outcomes, organizational capacity, financial stewardship, strategic value, and veteran transition and retention. Projects funded through the program must be completed by the end of the biennium in June 2027.

5. InternGF Summer Cohort Experience Participants Graduate

On August 13th, the 2026 InternGF Summer Internship Cohort Experience closed out the program and summer with a celebration at the Pearl. Attendees heard from speakers Becca Cruger, Amy Whitney, and student speakers Kalysta Quintero, Noreen Noor, Eric Tetteh Addico, Torosa Johur, Daniel Scott, and Joshua Haastrup. They shared about their experiences in the cohort as well as what they would take away from the program now that it is over.

The students were surveyed at the beginning of the cohort and again at the end with the same questions. The survey results revealed that the program:
Increased students’ feeling that there is a lot to do in Grand Forks by 36 percentage points (41% pre-program vs. 77% post-program)
Increased students’ understanding of how to get involved in Grand Forks by 49 percentage points (29% pre-program vs. 77% post-program)
Increased students’ belief that Grand Forks has good career opportunities for them by 24 percentage points (54% pre-program vs. 78% post-program)
The overarching goal of the program is to increase retention of UND students in Grand Forks. To continue tracking program effectiveness, students will be tracked for five years post-program to determine overall retention rates.

Photos from the entire summer and graduation program are available on the GF is Cooler Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gfiscooler/albums

6. UAS Summit & Expo Hits 20th Anniversary, Announces Expanded Agenda

The UAS Summit & Expo is celebrating 20 years this fall! The event returns to the Alerus Center on October 13th and 14th with a record two-day agenda covering military and government drone operations, counter-UAS technology, infrastructure, beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations, commercialization, and autonomy. Confirmed speakers include U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, UND President Andrew Armacost, and executives from Northrop Grumman, AUVSI, and Stratolaunch. The event has run in Grand Forks since its inception and continues to draw military, government, and commercial UAS interests to the region each year. The EDC will have a large presence at the event as a Platinum Sponsor, with most of the staff in attendance.

7. ADD Fund Awards $100,000 to Three Farm Daughters

Congratulations to Three Farm Daughters, the Grand Forks-founded and based pasta company, which received a $100,000 Agriculture Diversification and Development Fund award to establish a co-packing facility. The facility will package the company’s own products and provide co-packing services to other food companies in the region. The award was one of five approved at the ADD Fund’s quarterly meeting, a state program administered by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture to support new and expanding value-added agriculture businesses.

8. Ray Richards Golf Course PILOT Approved by School Board, County Commission

The Grand Forks School Board and the Grand Forks County Commission voted to approve a proposed payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, for a redevelopment project at Ray Richards Golf Course. The proposal, brought by investors, calls for 169 apartments and a Toptracer driving range facility at the course that is owned by the University of North Dakota. The application now moves to the Grand Forks City Council for a public hearing and final vote on September 8th. Ray Richards Golf Course currently generates no property tax revenue as a publicly owned property. The proposed project would require the property to pay taxes for the first time, generating additional tax revenue for the taxing entities, even with the PILOT.

9. UND CFI Hosts Inaugural Lift-Off Showcase, Awards $20,000

The University of North Dakota (UND) Center for Innovation (CFI) hosted the inaugural Lift-Off Showcase event on August 20th! The event marked the close-out of its Innovation Moonshot Summer Accelerator program and featured researchers presenting 10 commercialization-ready technologies. Throughout the summer, teams worked with coaches from the CFI and the North Dakota Small Business Development Centers (NDSBDC) to conduct customer discovery, refine value propositions, and develop commercialization strategies. Projects spanned health care, aviation, education, advanced manufacturing, energy, and unmanned aircraft systems, including a cell-free DNA cancer detection platform, an AI-powered vocal coaching app, and a system connecting U.S. drone manufacturers with compliant suppliers.

Judges awarded a total of $20,000 across three teams. ND Vocal, the vocal coaching platform, received the $10,000 top prize, while PT EMR, a clinical simulation platform for physical therapy education, and Detectology, the cancer detection technology, each received $5,000. The showcase included a conversation with a representative of gener8tor’s 1889 Fund on funding and mentorship support available to ND startups, reflecting the broader network of partners feeding into the region’s commercialization pipeline.

10. UND Selected for DOE Genesis Mission to Study AI in Battery Systems

University of North Dakota was selected for the inaugural cohort of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a Phase I initiative announced at a Washington, D.C. summit. UND is the only institution in the state selected for the program, which aims to combine AI, supercomputing, advanced scientific instruments, and quantum systems to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery, and national security. The project, “Adversarial Robustness Framework for AI Models in Battery Management and Energy Science Workflows,” is led by two professors and research will develop methods to test and strengthen AI models used to monitor and manage lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, backup power systems, and the electric grid, which will address vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and manipulated data that could cause the models to misread unsafe operating conditions.

11. ND SBDC Celebrates 40 Years

North Dakota’s Small Business Development Centers celebrated their 40th anniversary with a ceremony on August 4th at UND’s North Dakota Museum of Art. NDSBDC is part of a nationwide network funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, providing free advising services to entrepreneurs and small businesses across the state, including EDC client companies. State Director Tiffany Ford reported at the event that over four decades, the organization has helped launch more than 4,300 new businesses in North Dakota and has created or retained more than 88,000 jobs.