UC Berkeley ESRI Consortium
The UC Berkeley Esri Consortium is a group of campus departments and units who support using Esri products — also casually known as GIS products — for academic and research purposes by sharing costs, training, data, and other resources.
The College of Environmental Design represents UC Berkeley in the annually negotiated license contract between the UC Office of the President and Esri. CED is responsible for the initial payment, allocation of campus licenses, distribution of training or conference materials as provided by Esri, maintenance of the campus license server, and providing systems administration and consortium management services to member divisions.
- How do I sign up?
- What is included in the consortium membership?
- Who is and who should be a consortium member?
- What is the annual subscription cost and how is it calculated?
- How do I provide ESRI products to students?
- Contact
To inquire about joining the consortium, please submit a ticket to the CED Help Desk.
With a consortium membership, a participating division can:
- Connect to the campus Esri License Server (housed in and maintained by CED).
- Connect an unlimited number of their division’s computers to the license server.
- Offer Esri software to an unlimited number of students, staff, and faculty in their division.
- Request free passes to some Esri-sponsored events or conferences.
- Access Esri online training.
- Join a UC Berkeley campus mailing list of fellow GIS administrators.
Membership does not include training or repair services. While Esri provides back-end support to technical staff in member divisions, end-user support is the responsibility of the member division. Some units offer GIS support to all UC Berkeley students, for example the Geospatial Innovation Facility and D-Lab.
The Esri mailing list is restricted to representatives of member divisions and can be joined upon request through Google Groups. Emails include recent Esri news, breaking developments in GIS on campus, and recommendations.
Any academic or administrative department, research group, or organized research unit associated with UC Berkeley is eligible for membership. Consortium members for 2024-2025 include:
- Archaeological Research Facility (ARF)
- Berkeley Law
- Berkeley Natural History Museum (BNHM)
- Berkeley UCPD
- College of Environmental Design (CED)
- College of Natural Resources (CNR) – Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF)
- D-Lab
- Division of Equity & Inclusion (E&I) – Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI)
- Facilities Services
- Geography
- Haas School of Business – Core Programs
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – Energy Technologies Area (ETA)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) – Security & Emergency Services (SES)
- Lawrence Hall of Science – East Bay Academy for Young Scientists (EBAYS)
- Library
- Office of Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) – Environmental Protection
- SafeTREC
- School of Public Health – Academic
- School of Public Health – Research
- School of Public Health – The Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health (CERCH)
Since inception, the cost to join the consortium has been in the $1,000–2,000 range. The amount depends on license costs, optional add-ons, administrative costs, and the number of consortium members. The cost is calculated as follows:.
Cost of the campus license (negotiated by UCOP and prepaid by CED) + CED systems administration and management time (calculated at 2 hours per week) + Cost of server equipment maintenance and technical infrastructure (as needed) ÷ Number of consortium members
The license year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. Each April, CED polls current member divisions, calculates the cost for the coming license year, and processes each renewal.
All students, staff, and faculty who are affiliated with a member division can use Esri software at no additional cost. Submit a ticket to the CED Help Desk for details and instructions.
Please submit a ticket to the CED Help Desk.