The Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute (TCFFI; Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA) has a longstanding history of research and innovation in the area of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), primarily thanks to funding support from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS). Since the 1980s, TCFFI has supported the growing RAS aquaculture industry through addressing stakeholder-driven research priorities, providing open access to our scientific publications, and engaging in consultation services, conference presentations, private, state, tribal, and federal outreach, and educational courses. Our upcoming 5-year USDA-ARS research plan (2025-2029) includes projects focused on early-rearing culture environment optimization for triploid Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, reducing early maturation in Atlantic salmon, assessing heritability of superior Atlantic salmon performance in RAS, optimizing RAS parameters for coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch, converting RAS waste to sellable products, and assessing and developing precision agriculture technologies applied to RAS. These research plans will be discussed in detail, as well as a summary of findings from our most recent USDA-ARS research cycle (2019-2024).