The first UGRI Workshop was held on December 9, 2011 in Delft. The workshop focused on the dialog with E&P professionals and knowledge partners on the technology challenges that need innovative solutions for environmentally safe and profitable extraction of natural gas from unconventional resource rocks (tight gas, shale gas, CBM).

Delft University of Technology has launched the "Unconventional Gas Research Initiative" (UGRI) to accelerate the development of unconventional gas resources for play openers in Europe by providing integrated research & knowledge support.

UGRI’s mission is to accelerate and foster the environmentally responsible  development of unconventional gas resources.