Sun grant colleges

The Sun Grant Association is a group of five U.S. universities that serve as regional centers of the Sun Grant Initiative, which was established by the U.S. Congress in the Sun Grant Research Initiative Act of 2003 for the purposes of researching and developing sustainable and environmentally-friendly bio-based energy alternatives. The Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture are partners in the initiative. The five centers were each established to serve a different geographic region of the United States.

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Sun Grant Universities are not to be confused with space-grant colleges or sea-grant colleges; however, each of the five centers is based at a land-grant university.

Participating institutions

Although there are only five schools that are "national participants" and serve as regional centers, consisting of the following, many universities participate within each region as "regional participants."

• Cornell University hosts the Northeastern Center for the region composed of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia
• Oklahoma State University hosts the South-Central Center for the region composed of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas
• Oregon State University hosts the Western Center for the region composed of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington and Pacific island territories and possessions of the United States
• South Dakota State University is the "National Lead Sun Grant Center" and hosts the North-Central Center for the region composed of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming
• University of Tennessee at Knoxville hosts the Southeastern Center for the region composed of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands