Established in the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources (CNR), The Center for Economics, Resources, and Innovation (CERI) is a research institute whose mission is to support a new generation of interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach. CERI sponsors collaborative scholarship, mentorship/teaching, and policy dialog on leading issues of sustainability, new energy, and evidence-based environmental policy, with primary geographic emphasis on the Pacific region and Asia. While located in CNR, CERI supports colleagues throughout UC Berkeley, and fosters collaboration across California, nationally, and globally. Another core objective is to identify and harness resources to finance expansion of UCB’s own mission, as well as collaborative projects with other universities and new educational and outreach ventures.

Our core operations include hosting individual and collaborative initiatives for research and policy dialog, formal partnerships like the Berkeley-Tsinghua Research Partnership, as well as ad hoc joint activities with other universities, NGOs, and domestic and international public institutions. The Center emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and serves as an international center for the exchange of ideas and collaboration between Berkeley across the Pacific and Asian regions. Internally, CERI strives to partner with other UCB units that address areas similar to those the Center aims to cover (e.g. ERG, CEGA, Atmospheric Science group, Center of East Asian Studies, etc.). We want CERI’s activities to complement the efforts of these institutions and take advantage of synergies that will amplify individual impacts. The Center also collaborates with LBL and other National Labs, expanding Berkeley’s scientific partnerships into new areas of economic, resource, and technology policy. CERI is designed to be effective, nimble, and evolve our research agenda to follow salient issues and opportunities.

CERI operates under the overall supervision of the Dean of CNR and is managed on a daily basis by three co-Directors: David Zilberman, ARE; David Roland-Holst, ARE and Economics; and Jiang Lin, ARE and LBNL. The Co-Directors report to a 7-member Executive Board, with periodic consultation from a 12-member Advisory Board.