Science and society need synthesis research to adequately address complex and urgent environmental challenges.
Through NCEAS, scientists can make discoveries at a speed and scale that is difficult to accomplish through other scientific approaches, thereby accelerating the generation of science-based solutions that can be applied to policy and management.
How we accelerate discovery and science-based solutions
NCEAS accelerates discovery through three pillars of work:
- Synthesis research: We convene teams of experts who collaborate to synthesize and analyze large amounts of existing data on urgent environmental challenges. With their diverse perspectives and data sources, these teams are able to connect otherwise disparate dots, discover key knowledge gaps, and get the big picture. More >>
- Data science: We run initiatives and develop tools that help researchers turn big data into big knowledge. We also promote and cultivate open science, a culture of data sharing and transparency that makes the research process more efficient, enabling faster creation of replicable results. More >>
- Training: Through our Learning Hub, we cultivate generations of researchers who have the skills and confidence they need to work with big data and with each other to generate big-picture understandings. More >>
Our approach turns big data into big insights that can facilitate more informed, inclusive, and effective decisions about how to manage our resources sustainably.
Transformational, solutions-oriented science cannot happen without broad support.
By donating to NCEAS, you are supporting high impact science, and the work and impact of our incredible community of people. Donations help fund visiting scholars, postdoctoral associates, resident fellows, staff, graduate student fellows, and research interns, as well as the technology and administrative infrastructure and support that is necessary to sustain and advance the center.
We invite you to join our community as a donor and help us achieve our vision of a world in which people and nature thrive.
We accept contributions in many forms, including cash, securities, real-estate, and planned gifts.
For more information, please contact Sarah Sikich, director of development.
We hope you'll join our community of supporters.
Letters from our Executive Director
Learn what makes our Executive Director, Ben Halpern, excited about the present and future of NCEAS in the most recent of his regular director's letters.
Launching the new Master of Environmental Data Science Program at NCEAS
May 2021
Welcoming a new year and new opportunities at NCEAS
January 2021
Working through - and looking beyond - COVID19
May 2020
Join Us in Celebrating 25 Years of NCEAS
January 2020
A Next Generation of Curiosity-Driven Science at NCEAS
October 2019
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
May 2019
A Phase of Bold Growth
January 2019
New Endeavors in Environmental Synthesis Science
June 2018
Broadening Horizons through Environmental Data Science
January 2018
NCEAS is a Research Unit at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). UCSB is the tax-exempt entity that is entitled to accept gifts that benefit NCEAS. Charitable contributions are made to the UCSB Foundation or to the Regents of the University of California. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.