Research programs and units
Undergraduates participate in world-class research, both creative and scientific, at UC Santa Cruz. Students get both academic experience and career exploration as they engage in the pursuit of knowledge.
Research activities range from small groups within departments to large units with connections outside UC Santa Cruz.
What are you interested in? Find your activity or research group and get started.
Graduate students are an integral part of the UC Santa Cruz research community, working closely with faculty as contributing members of research teams. UC Santa Cruz graduate students are enrolled in programs in every division and serve as inspiring mentors for undergraduates.
Undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz enjoy a unique opportunity to engage in research activities, either by participating in ongoing faculty projects or by creating their own projects under faculty supervision.
Fast Fact
Nearly three-quarters of UC Santa Cruz seniors have done or are doing a research activity, creative project, internship, or service learning.
Engineering
- Baskin School of Engineering Research Labs
- Center for Computational Experience
- Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)
- Center for Research in Open Source Software (CROSS)
- Center for Research in Storage Systems (CRSS)
- Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE)
- W.M. Keck Center for Nanoscale Optofluidics
- UC Santa Cruz Genome Sequencing Center
- UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute
Humanities
- Center for Cultural Studies
- Center for Emerging Worlds
- Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning
- Center for Jewish Studies
- Center for Labor and Community
- Center for Mediterranean Studies – Mediterranean Seminar
- Center for Racial Justice
- Center for the Study of Pacific War Memories
- Center for World History
- Dickens Project
- Digital Humanities Initiative
- The Humanities Institute
- Linguistics Research Groups
- Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection (Ray FASC)
Physical & Biological Sciences
- Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO)
- Center for Molecular Biology of RNA
- Chemical Screening Center
- Institute for the Biology of Stem Cells
- Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP)
- Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)
- Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS)
- Natural Reserves, UC Santa Cruz
- Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group (SCPRBG)
- Santa Cruz Puma Project
- UC Observatories/Lick Observatory (UCO/Lick)
Social Sciences
- Archaeological Research Center
- Campus + Community
- Center for Agroecology
- Center for Analytical Finance
- Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies
- Center for Economic Justice and Action
- Center for Integrated Spatial Research
- Center for Labor and Community
- Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
- Institute for Social Transformation
- Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History
- Right Livelihood Center
- Science and Justice Research Center