The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 making it the oldest University in the state of Michigan. Originally located in Detroit, U of M moved to Ann Arbor in 1937, and has since added two satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn. The Ann Arbor campus is now home to over 40,000 students in over 200 major academic programs.

U of M is represented by a range of cross-departmental collaborators, including researchers from the School of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, Geological Sciences, and the School of Public Health. These departments provide a range of resources including a Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory, an Environmental Spatial Analysis Laboratory, and a Hydraulics Laboratory.

Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio, was founded in 1860 and is currently the largest University in the United States with just under 60,000 students.

CILER investigators from Ohio State University come predominately from three groups on campus: the Laboratory for Space Geodesy and Remote Sensing, the Mapping and GIS Lab, and the Aquatic Ecology Lab. The F.T. Stone Laboratory, located on the island campus of Ohio State University, is the nation's oldest freshwater biological field station. Founded in 1970, the Center for Lake Erie Area Research (CLEAR) focuses on the expertise of the University's faculty, with research addressing issues such as water quality, thermal pollution, phosphorous inputs, and hypoxia. Sharing research space at the F.T. Stone Lab with CLEAR is the Great Lakes Aquatic Ecosystem Research Consortium (GLAERC), which aims to unite researchers and facilities to better enhance their productivity and collaboration.

Michigan State University in East Lansing Michigan is the pioneer Land Grant institution founded in 1855 as serves as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. It is currently the home to over 80,000 students.



Pennsylvania State University has 24 campuses within the state, including a virtual world campus. The largest of the campuses is located at University Park, with over 160 majors offered to the 42,000 students enrolled.

Stony Brook University is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North side of Long Island. Established in 1957, Stony Brook has grown to an enrollment of over 22,000 students.

Collaborators from the Stony Brook University are from the Flood Lab and the Cerrato Lab. These labs have the equipment and capability needed to conduct benthic habitat surveys and related biotope characterization studies in marine and fresh-water systems. SUNY is one of only a handful of academic programs in the US that has the in-house capability to collect and analyze this kind of high-resolution data.

The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious campus in the University of Illinois system. Originally established in 1867, the university has grown to one of the nation's 10 largest campuses in terms of student enrollment. The university is composed of 18 Colleges and Institutes that offer more than 150 programs of study.

Collaborators from UIUC come from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Lake Michigan Biological Station, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, and the USGS Illinois Water Resources Center. Also a part of UIUC is the School of Integrative Biology, which has facilities, such as the Cáceres lab, to conduct research in the Great Lakes region.

The University of Minnesota - Duluth (UMD) became a part of the University of Minnesota system in 1947, although the campus dates back to 1895 when it was established as the Normal School at Duluth. The modern UMD campus is on 244 acres overlooking Lake Superior.

UMD is home to the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI), which includes the Center for Water and the Environment and the Center for Applied Research and Technology Development. Also a part of NRRI is the Ely Field Station, situated at Vermillion Community College in the Superior National Forest. Located on campus is the Large Lakes Observatory, the only institute in the country dedicated to the study of large lakes around the world.

The University of Wisconsin - Madison consists of twenty colleges and schools and is home to over 41,000 students. Established in 1848 it has grown into the 4th largest research University.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin's Department of Civil and Engineering and Mechanics have access to multiple laboratory facilities and instrumentation, such as the hydraulics laboratory. There are also several representatives from the WATER Institute at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. The Great Lakes WATER Institute has over 20 years of experience with undersea technologies, particularly ROV systems in large lakes.

Grand Valley State University (GVSU), which was established in 1960, is located in Allendale Michigan. The university is composed of eight colleges and has a total enrollment of over 23,000 students.

Grand Valley State University provides collaborators in association with the Annis Water Resource Institute. The Institute occupies the Lake Michigan Center on Muskegon Lake in Muskegon, MI. Facilities include a fully equipped Microbial Ecology laboratory, a Radioisotope lab, a state of the art nutrient analyses lab, and two research vessels, the 40 ft R/V Angus and 70 ft R/V Jackson.

The University of Toledo, located in Toledo, Ohio, was established in 1872 as a private arts and trades school. It has since grown into a public University offering over 250 programs to over 20,000 students from around the world.

Collaborators from the University of Toledo conduct most of their research at The Lake Erie Center, a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research and education center dedicated to solving environmental problems. The Lake Erie Center facility is located on the shoreline of Maumee Bay in western Lake Erie, and encompasses 30,000 square feet of laboratory, classroom, office, and support space. Some of the laboratories include a biological resources lab, a geographic imaging lab, a benthic ecology lab, and a Great Lakes genetic lab. Also associated with the University of Toledo is the Department of Earth, Ecological and Environmental Sciences (EEES), which is equipped with laboratories, field equipment, and research facilities such as the Plant Science Center.